West Bengal tightens norms for vehicle owners to obtain PUC certificate

West Bengal government has tightened the norms for car and two-wheeler owners who aim to obtain Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates for their vehicles. West Bengal Transport Minister Snehasis Chakraborty has said that the state government has tightened the rule for all vehicle owners in the state to obtain a PUC certificate to bring transparency to the process. The new rule will be enforced across the state from November 1, 2023.

The vehicle owners must clear all the due taxes and fines before obtaining a PUC certificate. As per the new rule, if the taxes and fines are not cleared, the specific vehicle will not receive a PUC certificate. Also, the state government has mandated that all vehicles must be present at the emission testing centres for real-time tailpipe emission testing to receive a PUC certificate. These moves have been taken to ensure a transparent PUC certificate issuance process as well as to keep vehicular emission-driven environmental pollution in control, said the minister.

The state government has claimed that there are thousands of vehicles including private and commercial ones, which have not cleared the fines issued to them due to traffic rule violations. As per the new rule, owners of these vehicles must clear the due fines before obtaining the PUC certificate.

There have been allegations that many vehicle owners use to get PUC certificates without taking their vehicles to the emission testing centres. Such malpractices have resulted in many vehicles plying on the road despite emitting higher pollutants in the environment than the permitted limit. At the same time, the government is also losing a large amount of money it is supposed to receive in the form of tax. The new rules aim to address such issues.