The Union Budget 2021 has been making waves among people online since yesterday because of the expected new policies. While the Budget received mixed reviews from taxpayers, the Finance Minister’s inclusion of a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy provides some refuge to the heavily polluted country.
The policy was suggested as a means to get crores of old vehicles currently in circulation, off the roads. “This will help in encouraging fuel-efficient, environment-friendly vehicles, thereby reducing vehicular pollution and oil import bill,” said the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The government has been working on a vehicle scrapping policy for quite some time now. Such a policy is not just environment friendly, but also encourages growth in the automobile sector and removes unsafe vehicles from circulation.
How Does It Affect The Environment?
The policy allows voluntary scrapping of vehicles which are over 15 years old – both commercial and personal, to undergo a fitness test first in vehicle fitness testing centres. The vehicles that fail these tests would be ‘grounded’.
Modern automobiles have been trying to combat and reduce their effects on environmental pollution. Older vehicles not only take up more natural resources and fuel, but outdated technology allows these vehicles to be a larger contributor to air pollution.
This will also aid in the setting up of the scrapping industry in the country, which will lay grounds for automobile recycling in an effort to make the process more environment friendly.
What Are The Commercial Benefits?
The Union Budget suggested the policy as a voluntary measure initially, with plans of forming a full-fledged policy by 2022. The vehicle users will also be allowed certain incentives to motivate them to get vehicular fitness tests done.
Also Read: Why As A Young Indian I Found The Budget Saddening
Along with the environmental benefits, the vehicle scrapping policy will also help aid the growth of the automobile industry of India. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari followed the announcement and said that the department will work on formulating a policy in the coming weeks.
“Riding on this policy, India will become the number one automobile manufacturer in the world. Those who scrap their vehicles will surely buy new ones. That will boost demand, and take the size of the automobile industry to around Rs. 6 lakh crores,” added the cabinet minister.
As incentives for people to scrap their vehicles, the owner is said to get a certificate of scrapping which might allow them to get a discount on their next purchase of vehicles.
The ‘win-win policy’ will be extremely useful in terms of commercial vehicles, which are often age-old vehicles contributing massively to air pollution.
While the policy is still being formulated, this is not the first time that the government has expressed its interest in a vehicle scrapping policy. The policy is imperative to combat pollution in the country.
For years, policies like odd-even vehicles, and a check on construction work has tried to keep a tab on air pollution but to no avail.
The policy can in fact bring a major change in the automobile industry and in our lives. The policy can definitely be termed as a raindrop in the drought. What are your thoughts on the vehicle scrapping policy? Let us know by commenting below!
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Sources: Indian Express, Financial Express, The New Indian Express
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