Bengaluru: As India decides to scrap its old vehicles, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari explains that the new policy will be nothing less than a ‘win-win’ situation. 

Elaborating further, he said that the policy will help improve fuel efficiency and reduce air pollution as well. 

More importantly, the policy will also lead to an increase in the country's automobile industry turnover to Rs 10 lakh crore from the current Rs 4.5 lakh crore, he added. 

The policy was announced in the Union Budget 2021-22 and provides for fitness test for personal vehicles which are 20 years old and commercial vehicles 15 years old. 

To persuade vehicles owners to scrap their vehicles and buy new ones, the government is also encouraging vehicle sellers to provide a rebate of 5% on the production of scrapping certificates. 

Here are more profits of the scrapping deal: 

The policy is aimed at reducing the population of old and defective vehicles, bringing down vehicular air pollutants, improving road and vehicular safety.

Besides, it will help in achieving better fuel efficiency, formalising the informal vehicle scrapping industry, and boost the availability of low-cost raw materials for the automotive, steel and electronics industry.

With the scrapping of old vehicles, raw materials such as plastic, copper, aluminium, steel and rubber will be recycled. This will bring down the cost component and help the industry become more cost-competitive.

The ministry is also looking at the proposal of incurring heavy fees for fitness certificate and the deregistration of such old vehicles as well. 

It is to be noted that the ministry will promote the setting up of Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) and will encourage public and private participation in opening such centres.

(With inputs from PTI)