Renewing registration of vehicles older than 15 years to get costlier from April

Re-registering of vehicles that are older than 15 years will cost up to eight times more than the current rate starting from April, as per an order issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This will be applicable across the country, except in the national capital region, where petrol and diesel powered vehicles are deemed deregistered after 15 and 10 years, respectively.

A price of ₹5,000 will have to be paid to renew the registration of all 15-year-old cars from April 1 as compared with the current rate of ₹600, Hindustan Times reported. For two-wheelers, the cost will rise up to ₹1,000 instead of ₹300 while for imported cars, the cost will be ₹40,000 instead of ₹15,000.

If a vehicle owner makes a delay in renewing registrations of private vehicles, an additional cost of ₹300 will have to be paid every month. The penalty for commercial vehicles will be ₹500 per month. The new rules issued by the ministry also state that private vehicles older than 15 years will have to apply for renewal every five years.

The ministry has also conveyed that the cost of fitness tests of old transport and commercial vehicles are also set to increase from April. A cost of ₹7,000 will be charged for taxis instead of current ₹1,000, and ₹12,500 will be charged instead of ₹1,500 for buses and trucks. Having a fitness certificate is mandatory for commercial vehicles once they are more than eight years old.

The government's move to raise compliance fees is based on the hope that vehicle owners in the country will choose to scrap their old vehicles and buy modern, new ones that are less polluting as air pollution is a serious problem here. In order to tackle the severe issue of air pollution in Delhi NCR, orders issued by the National Green Tribunal (2015) and the Supreme Court (2018) state that any registered diesel vehicle over 10 years old, and petrol vehicles over 15 years old cannot operate here.