The announcement of voluntary scrappage of vehicles in the Union Budget 2021-22 is regarded as a major decision in the positive direction to give the Indian automobile industry a much-needed boost. Still dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic, this comes as a relief to the auto sector. This also aligns itself well with the emission regulation laws to protect the environment. This is because the decaying of the vehicle on the road-side has created some serious health hazards to the people as well as to the environment by adding to the air and land pollution. Improper disposing of the vehicle has even polluted some water bodies and this contributes majorly to the toxic materials being added to the water bodies. This policy was proposed for a long time and finally, the government has given it a nod to implement it. There will be invested by the government to create jobs in this field.
Also read: Why is Vehicle Scrappage Policy important for India?
Vehicle Scrappage Policy – Who will get affected?
Under this policy, private vehicles older than 20 years and commercial vehicles older than 15 years will be eligible for the voluntary scrappage process. This means that these vehicles will become illegal on the roads if they don’t have a fitness test. The government will set up automated fitness testing facilities in various cities across the country. People not willing to give up the vehicle for scrappage will have to go for the fitness test of the vehicle to deem it fit to be on the roads. The automated process will assess the condition of the car and only if it complies with all the regulations, will it be allowed to stay on the road. Otherwise, it will be deemed illegal. It must be mentioned that since the government wants people to dispose-off their vehicle after 15 or 20 years, as the case may be, these fitness tests will be a bit on the expensive side and valid for only short durations. That means you will have to keep doing these tests regularly. This is a good decision to promote the adoption of vehicle scrapping in India.
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Vehicle Scrappage Policy – Incentives and jobs
The Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari feels that the costs of the new vehicles will be reduced by up to 30% if people voluntarily give their vehicles for scrappage. This will be possible because the government will provide a ton of benefits for people who follow the policy and the effective cost of the new car will come down quite significantly. In addition to that, the establishment of infrastructure and workforce to require to dispose-off the vehicles will mean that a lot of jobs will be created in the automobile sector. Some data shows that currently, India has over 6 million passenger and commercial vehicles due for scrappage. This is because there is no organized way to deal with the cars that have been abandoned. That is what this policy essentially addresses and the air pollution will come down massively after implementation and scrappage of over 6 million vehicles from our roads.
The policy has been approved by the government and the exact details will be out very soon as well. That will tell us further, how intricate the details are and how exactly the vehicle scrappage will happen in our country. This is also aimed at giving the sales of the new automobiles a boost.
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