Policy to link scrapping of vehicles to pollution instead of age in the works: MoRTH secretary

New Delhi: The government is working on a policy that would seek to link vehicle scrapping to their fitness levels including emissions, and not necessarily age, said Anurag Jain, secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) said on Tuesday.

He said the move will help in weeding out only those vehicles which are ill-maintained.

“When you come out with a policy that scrapping is mandatory after 15 years, people come back to us with a question. If I have maintained my vehicle well, why do you want to scrap my vehicle?” said Jain at the annual conference of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).


The ministry is studying the issue from the point of view of pollution only and not a vehicle’s age.

“Can we put up a limit for vehicle pollution?” Jain asked the assembled audience comprising auto industry leaders to help the government in suggesting ways by which pollution certificates can be made more trustworthy.

“I am sure you will come back with some good solutions so that we can actually get this into place,” said Jain.

In March 2021, the government launched the Vehicle Scrappage Policy 2021, also known as the Voluntary Vehicle-Fleet Modernisation Programme (V-VMP), for doing away with old and unfit vehicles. Cars older than 20 years and commercial vehicles older than 15 years are no longer eligible for re-registration and have to be mandatorily scrapped. The scheme included discounts of up to 5% from automakers to new vehicle buyers and waiver of registration fees on new vehicle purchases against deposit of vehicle scrapping certificates.

Vehicle scrapping, however, saw limited impetus since the scheme’s introduction. A total of 120,000 vehicles have been scrapped so far, of which 61,000 are older than 15 years.