Vehicle scrapping policy may change soon, offer relief to 15-year-old units

Vehicle scrapping policy may change soon, offer relief to 15-year-old units

Under the Vehicle Scrappage Policy, private vehicles above 20 years and commercial vehicles above 15 years need to be scrapped unless deemed fit by au

Vehicle Scrapping Policy
The Centre is planning to make the existing vehicle scrapping rules lenient by making pollution tests more trustworthy. If found fit, vehicles older than 15 years could be allowed to ply.

The Centre could soon make amendments to its Vehicle Scrapping Policy introduced three years ago and offer relief to vehicles that are more than 15 years old. According to government officials, the mandatory rule to scrap such vehicles if found unfit by fitness test centres could be modified. The Centre now aims to put more focus on pollution levels rather than the age of a vehicle before asking it to be scrapped.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is planning to make pollution checks of vehicles trustworthy to make this change in the vehicle scrapping rule. Anurag Jain, Secretary at MoRTH, sought help from the auto industry in this regard during the annual convention organised by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Tuesday (September 10).

Vehicle Scrappage Policy was introduced in India in 2021 to get rid of old and polluting vehicles off the road to keep emission levels down. The policy guidelines say private vehicles above 20 years and commercial vehicles above 15 years need to go through mandatory fitness tests at authorised fitness centres. If the test results are negative, the vehicles are to be sent to scrapyard.

Speaking at the SIAM convention, Jain said the move has been taken after feedback from vehicle owners. He said the rule should focus more on polluting vehicles than the ones that have reached a certain age. “When you come out with a policy that scrapping is mandatory after 15 years, people come back to us with a question — if I have maintained my vehicle well, why do you want to scrap my vehicle? You can’t mandate,” Jain said.

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To make this possible, pollution checks of vehicles also require to be stricter. Jain sought help from the industry to develop a better pollution checking mechanism. He said, “We will have to come out with ensuring that the pollution test will become something which is trustworthy. I would request all of you to help us out in designing the programme of pollution checks, which all of us right now know how to get the certificates.”

Vehicle scrapping can help boost sales by 18%: Gadkari

The plan to modify vehicle scrapping rules comes amid Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s remark that the auto industry can benefit by up to 18 per cent rise in sales through vehicle scrapping system. He shared examples from Europe and US, where carmakers witnessed sales growth by up to 15 per cent by adopting similar policy.

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First Published Date: 11 Sep 2024, 08:49 AM IST

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