The Indian government has decided not to go ahead with mandatory scrapping of automobiles over 20 years old, government sources said on Wednesday, June 26.
The Ministry of Roads and Highways had been working since last year to put into effect legislation capping the life of a vehicle at 20 years and to make it mandatory for it to be scrapped amid certain specific financial incentives, but the proposal has now been put on hold, the sources said.
Instead of making scrapping of old vehicles mandatory, the government is now working on making the cost of running vehicles of 20 years or older prohibitive by increasing the fees payable for the renewal of old vehicles, the sources said.
Plans for offering any fiscal incentives for scrapping have also been discarded with the government only proposing to give a certificate to anyone voluntarily scrapping a vehicle of 20 years or older, which could be used to get a discount on registration fees for a new vehicle, the sources added.
Last year, the government had reckoned that mandatory scrapping of old vehicles would increase steel scrap generation in the country and backed by the establishment of recycling plants would increase steel scrap supplies to the domestic secondary steel producers.