Government Proposes Major Changes in Fitness Certificate Process for Vehicles

The Government of India seems to be on a spree regarding bringing about a change in the automotive scene of India. First it was the tax relief for electric vehicle buyers in the Union Budget, then came the GST relief to electric vehicles where the tax on the same was brought down from 12% to 5%. Then came the draft proposal to hike the registration and registration renewal fees for fossil fuel vehicles in the country, with some hikes being proposed to the tune of 30 times higher than the previous rates. Now comes the draft notification from the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) regarding amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules. This draft is regarding speeding up the process of adoption of EVs and scrapping of old fossil fuel vehicles.

All these measures and proposals are aimed at curbing the air pollution caused by vehicular emissions in the country and pushing the nation toward adoption electric vehicles. There are reports on the internet stating that there is a proposal by the road transport ministry of India that all vehicles above the age of 15 years will have to get a fitness registration every 6 months.

To let you know, earlier this time was a year. Now the new proposal by the government has the potential to bring down this time to half. The draft also states that all vehicles up to 8 years old will have to go for fitness certificate every 2 years, while those vehicles between the age of 8 and 15 years will have to get a fitness certificate every year. Not just this, the registration certificate fee is also proposed to be hiked. 

Some parts of the draft have been quoted here,

“The newly purchased Motor Vehicles of the categories …..shall be exempted for the payment of fees for the purpose of issue of registration certificate and assignment of new registration mark subject to condition that motor vehicle is presented for the registration along with the scrapping certificate of the previously owned vehicle of same category issued by the authorised scrapping centre/agency and the scrapping certificate not utilised for any other such cases in past,”

These measures are meant to encourage scrapping of old vehicles in the market and speed up the adoption of EVs in India. While the industry as a whole as welcomed moves like lower GST rates for electric vehicles, and IT relief for EV customers, what is sorely needed is initiative to develop charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the country. All the incentives and subsidies will remain incomplete in the absence of a proper charging infrastructure solution and we hope some steps regarding the same are soon undertaken.