[anjan_c2007]

Today's news in The Hitavada (05.04.2021) from the Hon'ble Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways hometown, voicing our concern as regards the unjust, irrational and totally avoidable hikes in fitness fees and re-registration taxes.

[i@M.S.K]

Originally Posted by harishpr

I fully support the government taxing more for older vehicles.
...
I say, Tax even more. Perhaps, a lakh for a 2 wheeler and 3 lakhs for a 4 wheeler.

Definitely looks "motivated" to me, violating our forums' guidelines.

@Mods: Curious to know if my understanding is correct? If yes, what action would be taken?

[bharathg]

Thanks a lot for creating this thread, I have also used the same template and sent the email to the mentioned IDs. I too followed the following flow.

Opened Gmail > Copy pasted the content > Updated date + my contact details > input email address with CC to The Director (MVL) > Sent

But I added a step. I also included how the new proposed law affects me and some people that I know.

[AZT]

Just like watches, I think it would be cool to also pass down a car to the next generation. My family has owned a couple of M800 but sadly we moved on to other cars while I was in school.

It would have been nice to own one of those and repair it together with Dad. This is a sh*t move and the car manufacturer lobby has probably put in a lot of money to get this passed. Mandatory fitness tests after a certain number of years are good, anything more than that is just over reaching and taking advantage of people who like to hold on their cars to the end.

[anjan_c2007]

The Times of India also shares our concern. Thanks team TOI and Mr Proshun Chakraborty for appreciating our viewpoint.

https://twitter.com/ProshuncTOI/stat...468601865?s=08

Friends, pls check the six retweets for this above tweet by TOI.

Please click Retweets, then click the five retweets without comments to the right top.

One is by "Narendra Modi Fan Club", the twitter handle of our PM's followers. This means a lot to us.

[Nilesh5417]

Originally Posted by ads295

Thank you for this post. I sent the email after adding my own details and 1 point - which I will mention below.

The argument that the world is better rid of older cars just because they pollute more is flawed in a big way - it does not at all consider the carbon footprint involved in manufacturing an entirely new vehicle from scratch! I own a manufacturing business and let me tell you, the carbon emissions involved in building an entire vehicle is enormous! Who has factored in the emissions involved in the ENTIRE automotive supply chain, starting from the melting of scrap into castings and forgings? Who has factored in the fact that cars today contain SO MUCH MORE plastics than they did decades ago, all of which may never be recycled? This is the single biggest reason you don't see million mile Hyundai/Tata cars! Who is taking apart each car and studying how long it is built to last vs how planned the obsolescence is? Think of how much carbon emissions a second hand buyer saves when they buy stuff, and I don't mean just cars - bikes, bicycles, books, electronics, furniture, ANYTHING counts. From nature's point of view, anything second hand is basically FREE!

It is a very myopic view to simply say "Old vehicles -> tailpipe emissions bad => old vehicles bad."

+Million

Anything reused / continued to be used longer is somewhere saving a tree, stopping additional mining / extraction of resources from mama earth, burning of coal / other fuel, manufacture of non-biodegradable / non or never to be recycled materials and polluting the air some more.

If nothing else, that in itself is a great use case for buying well maintained pre-owned stuff - not just cars but what ever you reasonably can.

And old is history, culture worth preserving which only a very few do with intent. With no considerations for such aspects, it only goes to show how myopic our Babudom is. On the other hand, walk through Europe and one can see how the past co-exists with today and is considered when planning for the future. At least an honest attempt is made.

Anyway, this proposed policy is in so many ways is also just another death warrant for the environment. Just a regular / properly enforced PUC and road worthiness checks would do the job - why come up with this unless the intent is only to benefit the automobile industry.

Email sent...thanks for lodging a protest and taking a stand.

[Maverick207]

I did my bit as well by copying the content and sending the email and also marking a copy to the Director of MVL.. Classics are to be cherished and celebrated, not to be scrapped.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

A draft is appended herewith which may please be edited according to your choice. But please positively send as many representations for the cause. Reading through, the potential damage it is capable of can be well fathomed. Read with the Scrapping Policy, the combination of the two in unison is lethal for the well-being of our poor old automobiles.


Attachment 2139099

A soft reminder referring to post # 1 here on this thread for friends who may have not sent the representation by now.

Do please edit the draft posted at post # 1 as desired but positively send the above mail to:-

comments-morth@gov.in

so as to reach the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways by the last date 13.04.2021.

[amit162]

Thanks a lot for creating this thread and raising awareness. Just remembered to post it in time. Hope something comes out of it. The proposed policy seems to be very unfair and biased.

[anjan_c2007]

A lot of water has flowed from under the bridge since we last posted here. Office bearers/ signatories from 17 Vintage Clubs, 19 Marque Specific Clubs and 9 Historic Vehicle Museums and Institutions (Total 45) have all joined hands to send a jointly signed representation to the Union Transport and Roadways Minister, Secretary, MoRTH and other officials in the Ministry. All are one to request for lowering the age for certification as "Vintage" to 30 years since the date of manufacture.

The lead has been taken by Mr Gautam Sen, Mr Diljeet Titus and Mr T.R. Raghunandan, who have all taken a keen interest to bring all these bodies under one umbrella through a recent virtual meet. The meticulously drafted representation sent is as under:-

[ATTACH=Joint Representation to MoRTH from Historic Vehicle Clubs, Museums & Collectives.pdf]2146840[/ATTACH]
(this attachment is uploaded below)

Thereafter, some VIP's have also represented to the Transport Minister to draw his attention for resolving our grievances. The letters are attached. Mr Manvendra Singh Barwani, Vintage Historian and Restorer has also sent his appeal to the Union Minister.

[motorhead123]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

A lot of water has flowed from under the bridge since we last posted here.

Thank you very much for sharing this. Hope this helps reset the disastrous policy in the right trajectory. There is a lot at stake here.

[anjan_c2007]

Two more representations have been written by eminent industrialists to support our cause for preserving 30 year and older motor vehicles for posterity and with the request to classify all such vehicles as "Vintage." The two representations are from Mr H.P. Singhania and Mr Yohan Poonawaala.

Thanks to Mr Diljeet Titus, Secretary of Heritage Motoring Club of India (HMCI), Delhi for this great outreach to get support from a wider section.

Letter from Mr HPS.pdf

Letter from Mr Poonawala.pdf

The salient points in all these representations include allowing:-

(1) the 30 year and older motor vehicles to be registered under the special provision for vintage vehicles .

(2) No commercial use whatsoever may be permitted, but free use of these vintage motor vehicles be allowed with no other purpose restrictions.

(3) Important exemptions requested include those from emission compliances, obtaining pollution under control (PUC) certificate, exemption from modifications to meet new emission/ fitness/pollution norms applicable to new cars. Such modification or alteration will completely destroy the authenticity and originality of these historic vehicles.

(4) Provision of self-certification/ declaration/ indemnity by owner for transparent registration should suffice as is done in the Income Tax returns. There may be no need for a representative from any automobile association, club, committee to be involved in the process for approval or rejection of registration of a vintage motor vehicle as such involvement of representatives in the different state committees may create red tape and provide scope for corruption and influence peddling.

The last provision is among the most important of all. We are self attesting our Income Tax returns and also nowadays self attesting all true copies of our testimonials and certificates for admission to institutions and even for jobs, industrial clearances, licences and for many, many more such requirements. Hence, if we self- certify/ declare/ indemnify our vintage automobile, its like a self assertion under oath. It closes the doors of the brokers and middlemen to lobby for undue gains from such automobile owners.

[anjan_c2007]

The protests by commercial vehicle owners has commenced and this time its from Hyderabad. The last time such irrational increases were attempted in Dec 2016, effective 01/01/2017, similar enhancements and steep fines triggered a law suit in the Madras High Court by an organised commercial vehicle association. The High Court quashed the reregistration fee hikes and penalties for delay for all categories of motor vehicles in April 2017.

The fines for delay in fitness is Rs 50 per day for commercial vehicles wef 01.04.2022. Such penalties for private vehicles is Rs 300/- and Rs 500/- per month for two and four wheelers respectively.

From the link below:-

Many of them had applied for the first time post-COVID-19 and were shocked to see a penalty of Rs 50 levied per day, since the day of the default.

According to the RTA’s calculations, some of the defaulters are to pay close to Rs 50,000 for getting vehicle fitness certificates.

Mohammed Basheer, owner of a cab service was quoted by Hans India saying, “When I booked a slot in automated online services for checking the fitness of the vehicle, I was shocked to see the penalty amount of Rs 47,350, which was started from mid-2019 from the day of lapse.”

The fitness and reregistration fee hikes + the Green Tax burden makes all 15-49 year old vehicle owners the favourite whipping boys of MoRTH.

Commercial vehicle owners in most cases are members of associations in the respective parts of the country. They are much more organised than private vehicle owners and their bread and butter are solely dependent on their commercial vehicles. Maybe, we hear of more and more such incidents triggered as a result of some Quixotic decisions by those at the helm at MoRTH.

The link :-
https://www.siasat.com/hyderabad-pub...rules-2306843/