In a bid to incentivise the owners of old vehicles to go for scrapping, the Centre on Tuesday directed the transport departments of the States through a gazette notification to give discounts on registration fee and road taxes as per the vehicle scrappage policy that will come into effect from October this year.
Some of the incentives notified are: scrap value for the old vehicle given by the scrapping centre, expected to be 4-6 per cent of the price of a new vehicle; a road-tax rebate of up to 25 per cent for new personal vehicles and up to 15 per cent for new commercial vehicles from the States besides an additional discount of 5 per cent by auto companies against the scrapping certificate.
Private vehicle owners, who renew fitness certificates after 20 years, will have to pay an increased fee of Rs 7,000. They will pay another Rs 5,000 for renewal of registration fee.
Additional discount of 5 per cent by auto companies will, however, not be mandatory for the manufacturers but the Government anticipates that the all the stakeholders could be a contributor for a green tax in the country to help reduce pollution.
As per Government estimates, currently there are 51 lakh light motor vehicles in the country, which are over 20-year-old and 34 lakh light motor vehicles, which are over 15-year-old. Besides, there are 17 lakh medium and heavy vehicles, which are over 15-year-old, and plying without fitness certificates.
The Centre early this year had proposed a slew of measures to ensure that vehicles over 15 years old stay off the road. This included a steep rise in fee for renewal of fitness certificate for old commercial vehicles, increasing the fee for renewal of registration of private vehicles that are over 20 years old.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari during the Budget session had announced that all vehicles of the Central Government, State Government, Municipal Corporation, Panchayats, State Transport Undertakings, PSUs and autonomous bodies may be de-registered and scrapped after 15 years from the date of registration.
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
