india

Updated: Jul 27, 2019 12:31 IST

The Centre has proposed a slew of norms as part of its policy for scrapping vehicles that are 15 years and older, including mandatory renewal of fitness certificate every six months, giving incentives to new vehicle owners by providing exemption from payment of registration fees if older vehicles are sent for scrapping.

The proposals are part of a draft notification issued on Friday by the ministry of road transport and highways proposing amendments to the Central Motor Vehicle Act 1988, a copy of which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times.

This comes in the backdrop of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s long- delayed proposal of implementing a vehicle scrapping policy. Implementation of the central government’s ambitious vehicle scrapping policy, which proposes to impose a cap of 20 years on the life of all commercial vehicles has been delayed due to reluctance by state governments.

“This is a big incentive we propose to provide. It has been provided that the newly purchased motor vehicles shall be exempted for the payment of fees for the purpose of issue of registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark subject to condition that motor vehicle is presented for the registration along with the scrapping certificate of the previously owned vehicle of same category issued by the authorised scrapping centre/agency and the scrapping certificate not utilised for any other such cases in past,” a senior transport ministry official said, requesting anonymity.

According to the National Green Tribunal, about nine million vehicles of which 75% are two-wheelers will be due for scrapping by 2020. The number will inflate to over 21 million by the end of 2025.

The ministry had expected 350,000 vehicles to be scrapped in the next two to three years if the scheme, welcomed by vehicle makers, received the Cabinet’s green signal.

The Centre has also increased the fee for conducting tests and the grant and renewal of certificate of fitness for motor vehicles older than 15 years ranging from Rs 400 for manual motorcycles [Rs 800 for automated], Rs 800 for three-wheelers, light motor vehicles or quadricycles [Rs 1200 for automated], Rs 1200 for manual medium or heavy vehicles and Rs 2000 for automated.

The government has also revised the fee for renewal of certificates of registration and assignment of new registration marks. The new fees are Rs 1000, Rs 5000 and Rs 5000 for registration of motorcycles, three-wheelers/quadricycles, and light motor vehicles (non-transport), respectively.

The draft notification also proposes to exempt registration fees for electric vehicles. “The battery operated vehicles shall be exempted from the payment of fees for the purpose of issue or renewal of registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark. This was already issued earlier, but has been published again for legislative clarity for the amendments,” the official cited above said.

The Centre has proposed to make public transport disabled friendly.

“Priority seats, signs, securing of crutches/canes/walkers, hand rail/stanchions, controls at priority seats and wheel chair entry/housing/locking arrangement for wheel chair for differently abled passengers or passengers with reduced mobility to be checked and ensured at the time of fitness inspection for buses has been introduced,” the official added.

“A very important and long awaited action. This, when implemented, will help in bringing less polluting / non-polluting / better quality (in fitness terms) vehicles on the roads. This will also incentivise adoption of new vehicles with better technologies,” said Kushal Singh, partner, Deloitte India.

“The challenge has always been to create the enabling environment for better, safe vehicles along with reducing vehicular pollution and this is a step in the right direction,” he added.