Centre Takes Concrete Steps Towards Opting For New Vehicles And Discarding Old Ones; Eight-Fold Increase In Re-Registration Charges Among Several New Rules

Come April, the state governments and UT administrations will have to give rebates in road tax — up to 15 per cent for commercial vehicles and up to 25 per cent for personal vehicles, if a person registers a new vehicle against a scrapped one.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry issued a notification on Tuesday mandating this provision, which is aimed at encouraging people to retire their old and polluting vehicles.

In order to discourage having old vehicles, the government has also issued a notification raising higher registration fees for renewal of old vehicles.

According to the notification, the concession in road tax will be available up to eight years in case of commercial vehicles and up to 15 years, in case of personal vehicles.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had made this announcement on August 17 and his ministry had issued a draft notification seeking comments from states and other stakeholders.

The government has also notified the complete waiver of registration fee for new vehicles bought against scrapping old ones.

Though the new registration fee is not high, this is considered another soft incentive for retiring old vehicles. Moreover, the Road Transport Ministry has urged the vehicle manufacturer to offer a discount of up to 5 per cent on the cost of a new vehicle against producing a valid scrapping certificate.

The increase in renewal of registration and fitness certificates is aimed at discouraging people from keeping their old vehicles.

One has to shell out eight times more charge for renewal of your over 15-year-old car from April 2022. Similarly, commercial heavy vehicle owners will have to shell out nearly eight times higher fee for renewal of fitness certificates for such trucks and buses.

According to the notification, the renewal of registration of a 15-year-old car will cost Rs 5,000 compared to the current fee of Rs 600.

Similarly, the charges for renewal of registration of old motorcycles will be Rs 1,000 compared to the current fee of Rs 300.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry has issued the notification for implementation of the new regime from next year.

Obtaining a fitness renewal certificate for a 15-year plus bus or truck would be Rs 12,500 compared to the current rate of Rs 1,500. The renewal of fitness certificate for cabs will also be seven times more than the current charge of Rs 1,000.

Any delay in renewing registration of private vehicles would attract Rs 300 per month and Rs 500 for commercial vehicles. Similarly, delay in renewal of fitness certificate for commercial vehicles would attract a daily penalty of Rs 50.

In the case of private vehicles, the owners need to get the registration renewed every five years after the vehicle completes 15 years. Similarly, the fitness certificate renewal is mandatory every year once a commercial vehicle attains eight years.

The notification also specifies the fee for manual and automated fitness test of vehicles. The government aims to do away with the manual system of fitness tests, which can be manipulated or rigged.

The ministry has notified the norms for setting up such test centres as a part of its umbrella Voluntary Vehicle Scrapping scheme.