End of the Road

In a move to boost the automobile sector, which has been reeling under the impact of Covid-19, and to reduce pollution, the centre has come up with a policy to scrap old vehicles and reuse them

ON March 18, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari introduced a new vehicle scrapping policy in the Lok Sabha. It aims at creating an eco-system to phase out old, unfit and polluting vehicles.

As per the new policy, in case of failure to get a fitness certificate, commercial vehicles will be de-registered after 15 years. Private vehicles will be deregistered after 20 years if found unfit or in case of a failure to renew registration certificates. Vintage cars will be exempted from this policy, and separate guidelines will be formulated to regulate them.

According to the policy guidelines, after the end of the 20-year or 15-year period, vehicles will have to undergo a fitness test and acquire fitness certificates in order to be allowed on the roads. Each fitness test will reportedly cost Rs 40,000, which is in addition to road and green tax every private vehicle owner will have to pay while mandatorily renewing the registration after the 15-year period.

The minister said: “There are four major components of the policy. Apart from rebate, there are provisions of green taxes and other levies on old polluting vehicles. These will be required to undergo mandatory fitness and pollution tests in automated facilities. Automated fitness tests will be set up under the public-private partnership mode, while the government will assist private partners and state governments for scrapping centres. Driving such vehicles that fail to pass automated tests will attract huge penalties and they will also be impounded.