NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India has lifted the ban on registration of diesel vehicles with engines bigger than 2000cc, on Friday. However, the apex court has ordered the automakers to pay 1 percent of the ex showroom price of the vehicles as green cess to resume sales in the NCR."Let (the environment protection charge of) 1% come. Pollution is now under control," an SC bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi said in their order.This will, however, be a temporary charge and may be enhanced later. The court will also decide later whether it should not be imposed at all as contested by the central government.The court first levied the decision, to ban the registration of big diesel vehicles in Delhi/NCR, in December 16, 2015. It came as a big blow to the Indian automobile industry with some hailing the decision as "unscientific"."Lifting of ban on bigger vehicle in NCR region is a good move because this step alone will not address the emission issue. We need to figure out holistic solutions in automotive sector by replacing old vehicles on the road. Promoting environment friendly vehicles as well as significantly improving public transport are some of the areas which requires immediate attention. In addition, we need to move to higher and more uniform emission standards across the country," said Abdul Majeed , Partner, Price Waterhouse Mercedes had earlier on Monday moved the apex court saying it is ready to pay one percent environment cess on sale of diesel cars. The move from the German car maker is seen as an attempt to get the ban on registration of cars with engines bigger than 2000cc lifted.Earlier, Mercedes had said that it would launch petrol versions of all its models sold in India by September this year.As a result of the ban, the industry complained of incurring huge losses. Indian arm of Japanese automaker Toyota alone lost business worth around Rs 1,700 crore. Apart from this, carmakers also suffered lack of investments from their parent companies, Mercedes Benz and Toyota being one of them.The ban led companies revamp their product portfolio. Recently, Toyota launched the petrol version of its best-seller ' Innova+ ' MPV in the market, priced between Rs 13.7 lakh and Rs 19.6 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). So much so that India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki also announced that it is working on expanding hybridisation technology to address concerns over vehicular pollution.