BIN IT

IT’S EARLY DAYS YET FOR INDIA’S SCRAPPAGE SCHEME, BUT WHEN EVERYONE’S ONBOARD, IT’LL HELP DRIVE AUTO SALES, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, A CLEANER ENVIRONMENT. HERE’S HOW THE GEARS WILL TURN

- SIMRAN RASTOGI

It was called the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) in the United States, or more elegantly, ‘Cash for Clunkers’. Anyone with a vehicle up to 25 years of age could trade it in for a more fuel efficient new car, and get up to $4,500 (Rs 3.3 lakh) off on their new car. The programme, as in other parts of the world as a response to the 2008 economic crash, was run for a month in the US, but it did bring in nearly seven lakh old vehicles, and pulled a couple of large American automakers back from the brink, apart from the fact that the average fuel consumption and emissions of the number of cars replaced with new ones rose drastically. Currently, most countries don’t officially run a scrappage program, though some manufacturers do still offer fairly lucrative scrappage discounts.

The hope for India’s scrappage policy is similar. The scheme proposes to take older, less efficient, more polluting vehicles off the road, be it two-wheelers, four-wheelers or commercial vehicles, and replace them with more efficient, less polluting new vehicles. While several key aspects of the scheme are yet to be finalised, the proposed policy will be voluntary, and be applicable to commercial vehicles older than 15 years, and private vehicles older than 20 years.