Indian Government Proposes Scrapping Of Vehicles More Than 15 Years Old — A Push Towards EVs

The government on Friday proposed amendments to Motor vehicle norms to allow scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years. 

At the very same time, the government come up with the renewal of fitness certificates for vehicles older than 15 years every six months instead of one year.

Road transport and highways ministry said in a statement, "The Ministry has issued a draft notification for amendments to the CMVR (Central Motor Vehicles Rules) for providing a boost to the Electric Vehicles, ensuring divyang-friendly features in buses, and providing an enabling mechanism for the scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years."

For conducting the renewal of fitness certificate for motor vehicles older than 15 years, the fees have also been increased. Under this category, the draft notification proposes certificate renewal charges of Rs 1,200 for manual, and Rs 2,000 for automated vehicles.

Road transport and highways ministry also stated, "Priority seats, signs, securing of crutches/canes/walkers, handrail/stanchions, controls at priority seats and wheelchair entry/housing/locking arrangement for wheelchair for devyang (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 electric vehicles (EVs) will be exempted for the payment of fees for issue or renewal of registration certificate. This is one of the main reasons that the government is scrapping the old vehicles so that people get attracted to EVs, which is also good for the environment.

For medium and heavy goods/passenger vehicles, the registration charges for new vehicles has been increased to Rs 20,000 and for renewal of registration, it has been fixed at Rs 40,000. These prices also apply for the imported vehicles respectively.

Thoughts On The Scrapping Of Old Vehicles

The government has done a good job by issuing the scrapping of old vehicles. By doing so, the people will sell their old vehicles and move towards the future mobility option, which is EVs as they do not have any registration fee.