NEW DELHI: To check the rising pollution levels, the government will soon come out with an integrated policy to scrap commercial vehicles that are over 10-year old. However, there is no immediate plan to ban trucks and buses above 15 years, Nitin Gadkari, Union Road and Transport Minister said on Friday. The policy envisages tax exemptions and discounts totalling up to Rs 2.5 lakh on vehicles purchased for about Rs 10 lakh at the time of new purchase.
“We will form such a policy that more than 10-year-old vehicles will be scrapped. The cost of vehicle will be valued at 10 to 15 percent of original cost. If vehicle cost is Rs 10 lakh, scrap will be 10 per cent of it,” Gadkari said.
He further added that “Pollution is a big challenge for our country. Paris (Climate Conference) message is that we should pay attention to the environment.” However, old vehicles will be valued at 10-15 per cent of the cost of the original vehicle at the time of purchase, he added.
Gadkari said that government will recommend some tax exemption so that neither manufacturer nor government is at loss. “Government will give tax exemption of Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000. We are going to recommend it but have not declared the policy yet. Manufacturers will give Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh discount to owner of old vehicle on new purchase, so that overall benefit will be up to Rs 2.5 lakh.”
The minister said such a step would result in spurt in automobile manufacturing which will go up by 25 per cent and government in turn will be benefited through more taxes.
On tackling the huge amount of scrap generated through discarding of such a large number of vehicles, Gadkari said, “We will set up industrial zones at ports to recycle such scrap that would be marketed and immensely boost the economy.”
The plan is to set up 8-10 industrial units near ports like Kandla which will not only give certificates for accepting old vehicles but would recycle vehicles from India and abroad and thereby give a boost to employment and economy.