Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech in February announced a vehicle scrappage policy. Vehicles would undergo fitness tests after 20 years in case of personal vehicles and after 15 years for commercial vehicles.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the vehicle scrapping policy will be a ''win-win'' policy that will help improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollution.
Making a statement regarding the vehicle scrapping policy in the Lok Sabha, the Road Transport, Highways, and MSMEs Minister said the policy will also lead to an increase in the country's automobile industry turnover to Rs 10 lakh crore from the current Rs 4.5 lakh crore.
Gadkari has also issued an advisory to automakers, advising them to provide an incentive of a five percent rebate for those buying a new vehicle after producing a scrapping certificate.
Noting that the policy will be a ''win-win'' policy, the minister said it will help improve fuel efficiency, reduce pollution and GST income will also rise due to the purchase of new vehicles.
According to him, the policy is aimed at reducing the population of old and defective vehicles, bringing down vehicular air pollutants, improving road and vehicular safety.
Besides, it will help in achieving better fuel efficiency, formalizing the informal vehicle scrapping industry, and boost the availability of low-cost raw materials for the automotive, steel, and electronics industries.
With the scrapping of old vehicles, raw materials such as plastic, copper, aluminium, steel, and rubber will be recycled. This will bring down the cost component and help the industry become more cost-competitive.
The Road Transport and Highway Ministry will publish a draft notification for stakeholders' comments in the next few weeks. The minister said that there are 51 lakh light motor vehicles that are older than 20 years and 34 lakh light motor vehicles that are older than 15 years.
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