As reported by Times Now News, India has recently approved the new vehicle scrapping and recycling policy. The new policy will serve to take old, polluting vehicles off the road and also improve sales of new vehicles that are much less polluting and come equipped with improved safety features.

The move will undoubtedly lead to the increase in end-of-life tire available on the market and may affect capacities of established tire recycling operators in India.

India’s government notes that the new policy will allow owners to scrap their 20-year old vehicles and avail incentives on the purchase of new personal vehicles. For commercial vehicles, the scrapping policy will be applicable for 15-year old commercial vehicles without a fitness certificate.

While it hasn't yet been specified, but private and commercial vehicles over 20 and 15 years old, respectively, will be required to undergo a fitness test at government's automated vehicle fitness centers.

The government noted the scrapping policy will lead to the scrapping of 5.1 million lightweight motor vehicles older than 20 years and about 1.7 million medium and heavy commercial vehicles older than 15 years. As a result, air pollution emission is expected to be reduced by 25 per cent.

Drop in customs duties on end-of-life materials and scrap

In addition, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) recently reported that the government of India has confirmed that the customs duty on ferrous scrap imports has been reduced to 0% until March 31st, 2022. The government of India is also reducing the custom duty on copper scrap from 5% to 2.5%.

To learn more about the new customs duties on end-of-life tires, please read the document below.

Letter from Joint Secretary Ministry of Finance/Department of Revenue/Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs | Document source: BIR.