Policy to scrap old vehicles finalized: Nitin Gadkari

India will soon come out with a policy to scrap vehicles that are more than 15 years old. The policy aims at curbing rising vehicular pollution in the country. 

"Vehicles completing 15 years or more would be scrapped", Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said without giving more details. Will have to wait and watch for that !!

The minister added that the prices of new vehicles are bound to come down if materials like plastic, rubber, aluminium and copper - all reused from the scrap will be used for re-generation of auto parts.

Earlier, the Road, Transport and Highways Ministry had sent a concept note on Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (V-VMP) to the Committee of Secretaries on creating an ecosystem for voluntary scrapping and replacement of old polluting vehicles. The V-VMP policy proposes to take 28 million decade-old vehicles off the road.

Gadkari also added that the PMO is keen on the proposal and once it is implemented, pollution would be checked considerably as 65 per cent of the pollution is caused by heavy vehicles that are more than 15 years old.

The ministry had proposed a relief of about Rs 5 lakh to people who purchase new commercial vehicle of about Rs 15 lakh, if they surrender their over 15-year old commercial vehicles.  Gadkari expects that if the proposal is accepted, it is bound to result in Rs 10,000 crore boost in tax revenue as the automobile sector will benefit from it.

VEHICLE SCRAPPING POLICY ACROSS THE GLOBE

SOUTH EAST ASIA China: China substituted an estimated 2.7 million high polluters from the national car fleet by offering rebates of $450 to $900 from June 2009 to May 2010 Malaysia: Launched in 2009, a scrappage scheme paying owners of vehicles at least 10 years old MR5,000 ($1,354) was shared equally by the government and auto makers Indonesia: Spiralling traffic congestion in capital city Jakarta had forced the city government to think of a car scrappage scheme but the central government's 'low-cost green car policy' that makes cheap cars widely available had been a setback Bangladesh: No scrappage policy adopted so far. As the automobile industry is not developed in the country, most commercial/ heavy vehicles are imported from India. Sri Lanka: The Sri Lankan Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy and that of Transport had suggested scrapping of high polluting vehicles as part of an environmental sustainability report. EUROPE United Kingdom: The UK introduced a scrappage incentive scheme in the 2009 budget whereby Scrapping a car more than 10 years old allowed for a £2,000 cash incentive, with the money being shared equally between the govt and the auto industry France: Cars older than 10 years could be exchanged to buy a new car meeting particular CO2emission standards. It started with €1000 for a car with less than 160 g/km Germany: The largest scrappage scheme ever, Germany paid a premium of€2,500 ($3,320) to every owner of a car older than nine years when buying a new car United States: The famous $3 billion US federal "cash for clunkers" scheme, succeeded in improving fuel efficiency by 58% in the country Japan: Japan introduced a program for 1 year from April 1, 2009 onwards, offering up to 250,000 yen (US$2,500) to trade in vehicles 13 years old or more for new environmentally friendly cars

Source: ET