Scrappage Policy: There shouldn't be any incentive to scrap unfit vehicle, says Maruti Suzuki's RC Bhargava

Union minister Nitin Gadkari rolled out the voluntary scrapping policy in parliament today. The road transport minister said that there were 55 lakh light motor vehicles and 17 lakh medium and heavy commercial vehicles older than 15 years that can be scrapped.

The minister also advised automakers to give a discount of five percent and states to give a road tax rebate of 10 to 25 percent in exchange for a scrapping certificate.

Road transport secretary, Giridhar Aramane in an interview with Anu Sharma said, "Fitness centres will mainly be in private sector. They will have a business model where per vehicle fee we will prescribe so that the centres will be profitable. State governments can chip in giving land at a concessional rate. We plan to have one fitness centre per district in the next 2-3 years and after that we may need 1500 centres in the country."

"For scrappage there will be certain collection points where the actual de-registration of the vehicles will be done and then the recycling process will be done at a centralised place," Aramane said.

However speaking to CNBC-TV18's Parikshit Luthra, Maruti's chairman RC Bhargava said there should not be any incentive to scrap an unfit vehicle.

Bhargava said, "If a vehicle is scrapped because it has become unfit for use then what is the fairness and equity of giving any incentive to the customer because he cannot use the vehicle which is unfit. It would be against national interest and interest of citizens to allow a unfit vehicle on the road. So if a customers is going to scrap an unfit vehicle, I don't see that there is any justification for any incentive to be given to him to scrap it. It is a compulsory thing which he has to do. A fit vehicle is not being scrapped."