Notifications on vehicles’ scrapping likely in 2-3 weeks

New Delhi: Strict fitness norms – and not age – will decide whether a vehicle should be discarded or not, according to the vehicle scrapping policy announced in the budget this year.

The ministry of road transport and highways, which is formulating the scrapping policy, will issue the criteria for vehicle scrapping centres, revised vehicle re-registration and fitness test charges and fitness rules, which will form the eligibility criteria for a vehicle to be scrapped.

“We are going to make the fitness criteria extremely stringent. The idea is to get polluting vehicles off the road,” a senior government official told ET.

The government is likely to increase the registration renewal cost for personal vehicles and the fitness certification fee for commercial vehicles to discourage older vehicles from plying on the road, ET had reported last month.

The fitness renewal tests, which are required every two years for the first eight years, and every year after that for commercial vehicles, will see a significant increase, the official said, without revealing the exact quantum, citing sensitivity of the matter. For private vehicles, re-registration is needed after 15 years following a fitness test.

“We are in the process of issuing a few notifications in the next two to three weeks…. it has to be a voluntary scrappage policy, but vehicles which are unfit will be scrapped,” said a second official.

Under the proposed rules, a vehicle can be scrapped earlier if it is not found roadworthy.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the budget for FY22 that a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy would be introduced to phase out old and unfit vehicles.

A similar proposal to increase re-registration charges was floated by the roads ministry in July 2019, but was put on hold. The idea is to create a policy environment for removing old polluting vehicles from the roads.

The scrapping policy is expected to boost demand in the automobile sector, besides helping to reduce pollution. It is not clear if the government will provide incentives for scrapping a vehicle to encourage people to discard old cars and buy new, more fuel-efficient and less-polluting ones.

“The incentives under the policy will be industry-driven,” the official said. There may be a separate policy on incentives that may be issued later, the official added.

Already, a disincentive in the form of a green tax for vehicles older than 15 years has been announced before the budget by the transport ministry.