NEW DELHI: In a move to persuade people to scrap their BS-I and BS-II vehicles, and those which are older than these, the road transport ministry has proposed to hike the motor vehicle tax rebate by up to 50% on purchase of new automobiles for buyers submitting the scrapping certificate of their old vehicles.
While the BS-I emission norm for vehicles became mandatory in 2000, BS-II came into effect from 2002. Sources said the tax relief, proposed in a draft notification issued on Jan 24, is aimed at encouraging people to retire their old polluting vehicles, a step which will help curb vehicular pollution. At present, people get up to 25% discount in the MV tax while buying a new vehicle after submitting the scrapping certificate of their old personal vehicles. The rebate is up to 15% in the case of commercial vehicles.
As per the proposed norm, up to 50% discount would be applicable for all vehicles — commercial and personal — that are BS-I or were manufactured before the BS norms were introduced. This discount would be applicable in the case of BS-II vehicles that fall under the medium and heavy private and transport vehicles categories. This means scrapping of a BS-II car won’t get this benefit and only get the up to 25% rebate.
This proposed change comes amid indications of the govt putting in place a series of measures to get rid of pre-BS, BS-I and BS-II vehicles as they cause more air pollution compared to BS-IV and BS-VI vehicles.
“The efforts are to see that people scrap their old vehicles on their own, rather than making that (this practice) mandatory. Going by fuel efficiency and other parameters like safety, it’s better to get a new vehicle and scrapping old ones,” said a source.
Officials said the increased discount in the MV tax will also motivate people to scrap their vehicles that are lying as junk, as the scrapping certificate they get from the discarding process can be ‘sold’ or ‘traded’ for benefits like rebates on new registration certificates.
