Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the Cabinet will soon decide on the proposed vehicle scrapping the policy. The Road Transport and Highways Minister stated that he has cleared a cabinet note on the proposed policy and the finance ministry has also approved the same.

Nitin Gadkari's comment

"I have signed the file for the cabinet note on the policy for the scrapping of old vehicles. Finance Ministry has approved the note on it," Gadkari said on the sidelines of an event here. He said the note will now be circulated to ministries concerned and the Cabinet was likely to take a call on it soon. He said the proposed policy once approved will be applicable on all vehicles including two and three-wheelers.

Earlier the policy had gone for a fresh round of consultation with the stakeholders on the direction of the PMO. The minister had earlier said that once the policy is approved India could emerge as a hub for automobile manufacturing as key raw material available from scrapping like steel, aluminium and plastic are bound to be recycled, bringing down automobile prices by "20-30 per cent."

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Government's proposed draft

In May 2016, the government had floated a draft Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (V-VMP) that proposed to take 28 million decade-old vehicles off the road. A committee of secretaries (CoS) recommended to the ministry redesigning of the scheme for greater participation of states with partial support from the Centre.

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The CoS had suggested that the "scheme may dovetail a calibrated and phased regulatory approach for capping the life of vehicles together with stricter implementation of emission norms and accordingly a revised consultation paper got the in-principle nod at PMO. The government on July 26 this year had proposed amendments to Motor vehicle norms to allow scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years in a bid to spur adoption of electrical vehicles.

In a draft notification, the government proposed the renewal of fitness certificates for vehicles older than 15 years every six months instead of the current timeframe of one year. The notification also provided that the newly purchased motor vehicles will be exempted for the payment of fees for a registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark if the purchaser produces scrapping certificate of the previously owned vehicle of the same category issued by the authorised scrapping centre/agency. 

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