Govt. issues new guidelines for ownership of vintage vehicles

Two-wheelers and four-wheelers that are more than 50 years old from their original first dates of registration are considered as vintage vehicles. These vehicles cannot be used like other vehicles or for commercial purposes.

The Government of India has drafted a notification providing guidelines regarding ownership of vintage vehicles in the country. Two-wheelers and four-wheelers that are more than 50 years old from their original first dates of registration are considered as vintage vehicles. For selling or purchasing such vehicles, the buyer and the seller have to notify their respective state transport authorities within 90 days from the sale or purchase.

According to the notification, the registration or re-registration of vintage vehicles will require the owners to produce a valid insurance policy, a bill of entry in case the vehicle is imported and the old registration certificate - if the vehicle has already been registered in India. The draft also states that the owner of a vintage vehicle will have to pay Rs. 20,000 for a new certificate which will be valid for a period of 10 years. The subsequent renewal of the registration will cost an additional Rs 5,000 and have a validity of 5 years.

The notification also states that a new registration format will be issued for vintage vehicles. New registration numbers of vintage vehicles will read “XX VA YY ****”, where 'XX' will stand for the state code, 'VA' stands for vintage vehicle, 'YY' will be a two-letter series and '****' will be a four-digit number between 0001 and 9999. This number will be allocated by the respective state registering authority.

Further, vintage vehicles cannot be used like other vehicles or for commercial purposes. That said, the draft has not specified what is meant by ‘regular usage’.

This new draft notification comes after the Government of India had issued a notification to begin the process of formalisation of registration of vintage vehicles in the country in November 2020.

Source: Autocar India