Kamal Ghorui
Delhi govt’s war on old cars hurts environment in environment’s name, punishes those of modest incomes
In India, consumer rights feel very conditional, and erratic. Case in point: Delhi CM has directed strict enforcement of the ‘no PUC no fuel’ policy. That’s your right to an essential service, gone, poof. With petrol pump staff expected to police this pullback.
Not to mention that before denying you fuel, because you don’t have a PUC, the government has denied you a PUC.
This is ghoul level, even Kafka can’t touch. Pollution Under Control certificates are being held back from ‘end-of-life’ vehicles. Meaning diesel ones older than 10 years, petrol ones older than 15. The cause is holy: fighting pollution. The logic, batty.
Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, countries whose capital is never the world’s most polluted, don’t discriminate against vehicles by age.
What they do, instead, is pass or fail a vehicle basis what actually comes out of its exhaust. They build rigorous, reliable inspection regimes, like Germany’s TÜV, and Japan’s Shaken. Precise, fair systems don’t punish well-maintained older cars.
They mobilise environmental price signals, which make running a dirty old car expensive, but also buying a new heavy SUV. By contrast, in ban-preferring India, utility vehicles – SUVs and MPVs – accounted for 67% share of passenger vehicle sales in FY26.
The ‘embodied carbon’ cost (mining, smelting, fabrication, transport) of all new vehicles, makes scrapping older cars that run well inexcusable.
But UVs carry extra ecological culpability. Remember, even BS6 compliance is linked to vehicle size, which means a big SUV meeting this standard has more absolute emissions, than a tiny old hatchback in good shape, which goes much further per litre of petrol.
Another indefensible thing about Delhi’s scrappage fetish, is its wealth blinkers. Policymakers seem unable to see that for many families and small enterprises, upgrading to a new car is quite a challenge today. The downturn in India’s small car sales is more than an aesthetic shift.
It reflects how real monthly earnings for salaried as well as self-employed workers, have been dismally stagnant since Covid. Why push income-strained households to take on additional debt, where only auto companies and financiers benefit? Delhi’s air quality crisis is acute.
That’s all the more reason for stringent pollution testing, targeting gross polluters, and fixing the metro’s last-mile problem. Instead of illogical, unfair policies.
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