Govt mulls carrot-and-stick approach to weed out polluting clunkers

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. To weed out polluting vehicles older than 20 years from Indian roads, the highway ministry is considering a carrot-and-stick approach. It plans to double the incentives to nudge owners to replace them, and if that doesn’t work, order mandatory scrapping.

The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) is examining a proposal to ban vehicles complying with the first-generation Bharat Stage I (BS I) norms even if they possess fitness certificates, two people aware of the matter said on the condition of anonymity. The first person quoted earlier said that their scrapping would be made mandatory if higher incentives do not encourage owners to replace them with vehicles meeting the latest BS VI specifications. For BS II complaint category, largely medium and heavy vehicles, the discussions are on to raise or nearly double the incentive on motor vehicle tax from the present 25% under the government's scrappage policy, according to the second person quoted above.

A ban would follow if that doesn’t work. Queries emailed to MoRTH remained unanswered till press time. Bharat Stage, or BS emission standards, regulate the level of pollutants emitted by vehicles.

BS I regulations, compliant with Euro I norms, were introduced nationwide in 2000, while tougher BS II became mandatory across the country from 2005. “Of India’s estimated 35-40 crore vehicles, the ban is expected to impact a small fraction—primarily BS I vehicles that have been on the roads since before 2005," said Shreevardhan Sinha, senior partner, regulatory and compliance, Desai & Diwanji. “The proposed ban on BS1 vehicles is a progressive step toward curbing vehicular pollution and enhancing road safety.