An “in-principle’ approval has been issued for the commercial vehicle scrappage policy that we have been talking about, although with a mild dilution that we had previously thought would affect about 2.8 Crore vehicles currently plying Indian roads. The Scrappage policy due April 1, 2020 will now be specifically for vehicles that are 20 years or older. A PTI report in fact indicated that The development follows Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari’s announcement that the Vehicles Scrapping Policy, aimed at curbing vehicular pollution, has almost been finalised. “A high-level meeting, chaired by Principal Secretary to the prime minister and comprising secretaries from different ministries in principle approved the vehicle scrapping policy today,” the official, who did not wish to be quoted.
The Policy will be effective from April 1, 2020, and the life of the commercial vehicle for scrapping has been decided to be 20 years, rolling back from the previously stated 15 years. The meeting was attended by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Secretaries of Finance, Road, Transport and Highways, Heavy Industries and Steel departments, among others. A source in the know said that the matter will go to the GST Council where it has been requested to reduce the GST rate to 18 percent from 28 per cent for a new commercial vehicle that would be purchased in place of a scrapped vehicle.”The overall benefit of buying a new vehicle in place of scrapped vehicle would be about 15-20 percent of the new vehicle cost,” the source added to the PTI on Friday.
Now there is still the matter of the cabinet nod, before the bill is entirely passed but, PTIs source however mentioned that while there is no official nod required it may go to the cabinet considering the widespread outreach this programme could have. However, the governments is still saying this is a Voluntary program being branded as the Voluntary Vehicle Fleet Modernisation Programme (V-VMP) policy that aims at scrapping 20-year-old commercial vehicles in the first phase.
