Is your car older than 15 years? Be prepared to shell out more for registration

In another reminder that vehicles older than 15 years are not welcome on Indian roads, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recently issued a notification according to which, renewal fees for such vehicles would be hiked to ₹5,000 from April of next year. This figure is significantly higher than what one has to pay for renewal at present - ₹600.

With the government looking at taking old vehicles off roads as these are prone to breakdowns and often contribute to vehicular emissions significantly, the onus may well fall on owners of such vehicles to make the switch. The official statement from Morth outlines that the process of registration renewal fees for all old vehicles, including heavy vehicles, will be bifurcated.

An extra charge of ₹300 will be levied for each month that the renewal is overdue for a personal vehicle and ₹500 in the case of commercial vehicle.

Additionally, maintaining an old vehicle that is at least 15 years of age would also be more expensive soon. This is because the fees for conducting mandatory fitness tests and renewal of fitness certificate has been hiked.

Renewal fees for older two-wheelers will also see a hike from ₹300 to ₹1,000.

Those looking at giving up their old vehicles under the scrappage policy, however, can look forward to various incentives when buying a new vehicle. The fee for issue of certificate of registration for a new vehicle, purchased against the authority of the Certificate of Deposit issued by a registered vehicle scrappage facility will be waived off.

In Delhi-NCR, however, petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years are anyway banned.