In a draft notification, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has proposed a complete overhaul of the validity and renewal schedule for Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCCs), offering
significant relief to owners of newer BS-VI vehicles while imposing stricter compliance on older, more polluting vehicles.
The biggest beneficiaries are private owners of newer BS-VI cars, who may no longer have to renew their PUC certificates every year.
Under the proposed rules, private BS-VI vehicles that are up to six years old will get a three-year PUC validity, replacing the current one-year validity.
This means owners of cars purchased after the rollout of BS-VI emission norms in April 2020 could make significantly fewer trips to PUC testing centres during the first six years of ownership.
Commercial vehicles running on BS-VI standards are also set to benefit.
Those that are up to six years old will receive a two-year PUC validity under the draft proposal.
The move is aimed at reducing compliance requirements for vehicles that already produce substantially lower emissions.
WHAT CHANGES FOR OLDER BS-VI VEHICLES?
The relaxation will not continue indefinitely. According to the draft notification:
- BS-VI vehicles between 6 and 10 years old will need to renew their PUC certificates once every year.
- BS-VI vehicles older than 10 years will require a fresh PUC certificate every six months.
The government’s approach is based on the premise that emissions can increase as vehicles age, even if they were originally built to cleaner standards.
OLDER VEHICLES TO FACE STRICTER POLLUTION CHECKS
While newer vehicles receive relief, the proposed rules tighten compliance for older vehicles.
Owners of BS-IV vehicles will have to renew their Pollution Under Control certificates every six months, compared to the existing one-year validity.
The rules become even stricter for vehicles complying with BS-I, BS-II and BS-III emission standards.
These vehicles would need to undergo emission testing every three months, reflecting the government’s focus on monitoring vehicles that typically produce higher tailpipe emissions.
WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT MAKING THIS CHANGE?
The proposal is designed to make the compliance system more risk-based instead of applying the same renewal period to every vehicle.
Newer BS-VI vehicles are built to much stricter emission standards and generally emit significantly lower levels of pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM).
Since these vehicles are cleaner and newer, the government believes they require less frequent inspections during the early years of ownership.
Older vehicles, on the other hand, are more likely to develop higher emissions over time, prompting more frequent testing under the proposed norms.
WHAT ARE BHARAT STAGE (BS) NORMS?
Bharat Stage (BS) emission standards are India’s regulations that limit pollutants released by vehicles.
They are aligned with European emission norms and prescribe limits for pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter.
BS-IV standards were implemented between 2017 and 2020.
From April 1, 2020, India skipped BS-V and directly adopted the stricter BS-VI emission norms to accelerate pollution control across the country.
BS-VI fuel contains a maximum sulphur content of 10 parts per million (ppm), compared with 50 ppm under BS-IV fuel, making it significantly cleaner and helping vehicles emit lower levels of harmful pollutants.
