Those who daily commute to London, central London are very familiar with this sign, because this sign remind them that this area of London is very congested and polluted , and if you don't want to travel by bus and tubes and still want to enter in it in your own vehicle and make it more polluted than you have to pay some charges for this contribution in order to reduce this pollution and congestion.
London is divided between 6 zones and mostly congestion charge area is consist of zone 1 where all embassies and consulates are located, which is also called central London.Due to this congestion charges a diplomatic conflict is arise between different embassies and Mayor of London.The leader of all these is American Embassy, American diplomats refuse to pay congestion charges by saying it is a tax. A basic diplomatic rule is that one country cannot tax another country, so they are not liable to pay any form of taxes.Therefore till now Americans allegedly owe almost US $2-million in charges and fines which they have to pay to London.
Now French embassy also refuses to pay and start backing Americans on their stand, because their area also come under congestion earlier this year when congestion area is expanded. The very interesting thing is this that most of the rich nations refused to pay but mostly African nations which are far more poorer than these big guys are happily paying like good citizen and respect the law of the host nation.The question is this that why Americans refused to pay, are they poor enough or their ego is hurt by this. Still problem is there, and Mayor of London is determined to get the charges from diplomats.
