NEW DELHI: Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari Thursday asked auto companies to give “reasonably good” discounts to consumers if they scrap their old, polluting vehicles, and said he has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for fresh GST benefits to those replacing outdated models. Addressing the 65th annual convention of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), Gadkari said financial incentives for vehicle scrappage will help tackle the growing vehicular pollution across cities, while also helping push sales of new vehicles and enable govt to collect more tax. “Day before yesterday, I requested the FM and also the PM that to encourage scrappage and those replacing older vehicles, they should consider something on GST,” the minister added. He said that scrappage is a “win-win” for both the industry and govt as this could also help companies get access to precious metals from scrapped vehicles, instead of getting them through imports. Gadkari said that at present, an average of 16,830 vehicles are being scrapped monthly, and the private sector has invested Rs 2,700 crore towards this effort. “The steel scrap that we import is 60 lakh tonnes. And apart from this, the very important metals, where there is a shortage and which you have to bring from outside, can also be accessed through scrapping,” Gadkari said.
