‘Vehicle scrap policy, fitness certificate fee hike will hit the poor’

Goods and passenger vehicle operators, who oppose the Centre’s scrap policy, termed the latest rules hiking the fees for fitness certificate (FC) as an instrument of "harassment" by the government which has lost touch with the reality.

At present, the testing and renewing FC together cost between Rs 400 to Rs 1000. Since 2002, owners of aged vehicles have also paid green tax ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 500.

The Centre has recently issued a draft notification hiking the testing and FC fee for vehicles aged above 15 years. With this, the testing and FC will cost about Rs 1,500 for two-wheelers, about Rs 4,500 for auto rickshaws, Rs 8,800 for light motor vehicles and about Rs 14,000 for heavy vehicles.

Also read: Rebate in motor vehicle tax proposed for scrapping old vehicles

Federation of Lorry Owners Association president B Channareddy said while the government’s aim to reduce pollution and safety was welcome, bringing rules that impose huge amounts of "penalty" will deprive lakhs of people of their livelihood.

"The government has to understand that most of the people who will be affected are the middle or lower-middle class people who depend on such vehicles for their livelihood. Many people spend years of savings to buy small and medium commercial vehicles to transport goods to APMC market, railway goods shed or to local markets. Most often, these are short-distance trips," he said, adding that forcing them to pay high amounts of fee amid a pandemic should be opposed.

The goods transporters have also noted that the scrapping policy will hit the small players in the market. Most of the people who operate commercial vehicles have been described as those owning one or two vehicles.

According to the draft notification, commercial vehicles over 15 years and personal vehicles over 20 years will be marked for scrapping if they fail the fitness test.

Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Karnataka State Tourist Vehicle Operators Association, said the old vehicles have to go but the government needs to understand that it was not just commercial vehicles even personal vehicles will be affected. "People who have retired and live on pension can’t afford to scrap an old car and buy a new one. Such aspects have to be considered before issuing rules," he said.

Karnataka State Travel Operators Association’s S Nataraj Sharma said the government should also change the way it assesses vehicles. "Many people run vehicles for lakhs of kilometres within the first three or four years and then there are those who do not operate them much even over the 15 year period. The government should assess a vehicle based on the distance it has clocked," he suggested.