India’s auto body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has urges the government to allow dealer workshops to function as inspection and certification centers under the new scrappage policy to expedite the process.
SIAM President and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, Kenichi Ayukawa said dealer workshops should be allowed to function as inspection and certification centers as they already have the equipment and expertise to test automobiles. He was speaking at a dealer conclave on Tuesday.
Ayukawa stated that the government’s inspection centers may take a long time to develop across India and might not be commercially viable. He added the mandatory fitness tests recommended after 15 years and 20 years, for commercial and personal vehicles, respectively, are too late and should start early in the life of the vehicle.
Earlier, SIAM had hailed India’s new scrappage policy as a big change for the auto industry.
On Aug 13, India officially launched the auto scrappage policy to boost domestic scrap generation. The Indian government wants to reduced scrap imports and increase domestic scrap generation and processing abilities.
India’s scrap industry is predominately unorganized, which reduces efficiency and leads to lower metal recovery. The government plans to establish vehicle inspection and certification centers to issue certificates to owners of scrapped vehicles, which could be redeemed while making new vehicle purchases.
The government plans to implement the policy for scrapping government-owned vehicles above 15 years by April 1, 2022, followed by heavy commercial vehicles by 2023 and personal vehicles by 2024.