Ludhiana: City businessmen are upbeat over the announcement of vehicle scrappage policy by the central government, under which the old and unfit vehicles will be scrapped and owners will be incentivised if they purchase new vehicles.
The policy will give great push to the automotive sector and the auto parts and fasteners manufacturers based in the city will also largely be benefitted by implementation of this policy.
Notably, several city business associations had been demanding the introduction of the vehicle scrappage policy from sometime now and they had taken up this issue with several Union ministers and even Prime Minister’s Office.
Welcoming the move, Upkar Singh Ahuja, president of Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU), said, “Central government has taken a wise decision by introducing the vehicle scrappage policy. This was a long-pending demand of the industry and the policy could not have come at any better time than this, as the commercial vehicle industry is passing through very tough time because of Covid-19 situation. Presently, the industry production and sales have dropped by almost 35% and the vehicle scrappage policy will trigger demand not only for the automobiles but also for the components and other supplies too.”
According to Narinder Bhamra, president of Fasteners Manufacturers Association of India, “We are thankful to the central government for considering our demand of introduction of the vehicle scrappage policy. From almost two years, our association had been taking this issue up with different ministries and even PMO by giving representations and even meeting Union ministers. The overall business of fastener industry depends majorly on automobile sales and now when old vehicles will be scrapped there certainly is going to be demand for the new ones and as a result industries like fastener manufacturing, auto parts manufacturing will also see a boom.”
According to Pankaj Sharma, general secretary of CICU, “It was a long-standing demand of industry to implement this policy and we are happy that finally centre government has taken the step in right direction. Steel industry is one of the prominent industries in Punjab and with this policy, availability of various types of scrap like steel, copper, aluminum will be better.”
Vehicles will not just be scrapped by their age, but also if they are found to be unfit in automated testing, the PM said.