Private vehicle owners in fix as Odisha orders to scrap old govt vehicles by March 31

The owners of private vehicles, particularly which are nearing the 15-year mark are in a fix after the Odisha State Transport Authority (STA) issued orders to scrap all the government vehicles over 15 years old by March 31.

As per an STA order issued last Friday, “The certificate of registration in respect of a motor vehicle owned by the State government, ULBs, State Public Sector Undertakings/ Corporations established, owned or controlled by the State government, will expire after the lapse of fifteen years from the date of initial registration of the vehicle.”

“The certificate of registration of government vehicle if already renewed, such certificate will be treated as cancelled on completion of fifteen years from the date of initial registration of the vehicle,” the order said.

So, by that order, all government vehicles under different departments, PSUs, organizations, Autonomous Councils, ULBs etc. above 15 years of age will be mandatorily scrapped through a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) on or before 31st March, 2023 in the RVSF Centers established in the State.

Sanjay Biswal, Joint Commissioner of Odisha STA said, “We have 642 active vehicles over 15 years of age. There are 7,300 other govt vehicles over 15 years of age with expired RC.”

Though no order for private vehicles is issued, but reports suggest that scrapping of 20-year-old private and 15-year-old commercial vehicles will also start once the government vehicles are done with.

This has made the private owners anxious. Without sufficient scrapping yards and incentives, vehicle owners are getting restless.

Dillip Patra, a car owner said, “My car has metered only 50,000 kms on odometer in all these years because my office is nearby. It is in a good condition. If I get a notice to scrap it, then there should be enough incentives for me to do that.”

“The government should give more relief in taxes and levies, so that the owners of old vehicles would get motivated to scrap them and buy new vehicles. Moreover, there should be enough scrapping centres before govt implements the law for private vehicles,” opined a road safety activist, Subrat Nanda.

As per prevailing norms, vehicle owners who scrap their vehicle will get 6 percent concession on the new vehicle on the ex-showroom price. In addition to that, they will get another 5 percent discount from the vehicle manufacturer. For private vehicle owners, a 25 percent discount in tax and in case of commercial vehicles, a tax rebate of 15 percent will be applied for eight years.

(Reported By Goutam Panda, Soumyaranjan Sahu, OTV)