While asking the automobile industry to help the Union government in designing the programme of trustworthy pollution checks, Anurag Jain, secretary in the ministry of road transport & highways (MoRTH), says the government is working on a policy that seeks to link vehicle scrapping to their fitness levels, including emissions, and not on the age of the vehicle.
Speaking at the annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Mr Jain said, “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.”
“We are studying it from the pollution (point) only. The government is working on a policy for the same. We are studying whether we can enforce a scrapping mandate where the upper limit is relative to the pollution of the vehicle, for example, pre-Bharat Stage (BS)-1 or pre-BS-2, instead of the 15-year age mandate,” he added.
In 2018, the Supreme Court directed not to allow vehicles older than 15 years for petrol, and 10 years for diesel engines on the roads in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). In many states, vehicles have to undergo a fitness and pollution test after 15 years and can obtain renewal to ply it for five more years.
However, many vehicle owners complain about faults in the fitness and pollution checking systems.
Mr Jain, the secretary of MoRTH, emphasised the need to have a reliable system of pollution checks. He called on the automobile industry to assist the government in creating a more trustworthy pollution testing framework.
“Instead of getting the certificates, you have to be a trustworthy certificate," he said, adding "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.”
In March 2021, Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of MoRTH, announced the vehicle scrappage policy in the Lok Sabha.
The policy proposed to de-register commercial vehicles after 15 years in case of failure to get the fitness certificate. As a disincentive measure, increased fees for fitness certificates and fitness tests are applicable for commercial vehicles 15 years onwards from the date of initial registration.
Private vehicles were proposed to be de-registered after 20 years, if found unfit or in case of a failure to renew the registration certificate. As a disincentive measure, increased re-registration fees are applicable for private vehicles too after this period.
The government also said that all vehicles of the Union government, state government, municipal corporations, panchayats, state transport undertakings, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies with the Union and state governments may be de-registered and scrapped after 15 years from the date of registration.
