A high-powered committee of the Indian government has approved a commercial vehicle scrapping policy based on fiscal incentives, a senior government official said on Monday, February 27.
The government official said that the high-powered committee has approved giving 15-year old commercial vehicle owners a fiscal incentive that would add up to 15 percent of the cost of a new vehicle, while the government will not make it mandatory for all such vehicle owners to scrap their vehicles after 15 years of use.
The proposal to scrap old commercial vehicles, drafted by India’s Ministry of Highways, will now be forwarded to the country’s cabinet of ministers for final approval and implementation, the official said.
The fiscal incentive to owners to scrap 15-year-old vehicles will include a 50 percent discount on road tax and excise duty payable when buying a new vehicle, an additional discount offered by commercial vehicle manufacturers and fair value of the scrap. These will add up to about a 15 percent discount over the total acquisition cost of a new commercial vehicle, the official added.
In the first phase, the auto scrapping policy will cover only commercial trucks and buses.