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New Delhi: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has proposed revising the validity period of the Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) for newer private vehicles. It will reduce compliance requirements for owners. Under the draft notification, privately owned Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) vehicles that are up to six years old would need a PUCC renewal only once every three years, replacing the current annual renewal.

For BS-VI vehicles between six and ten years of age, the certificate would need to be renewed once every year. Vehicles older than 10 years would need to undergo a fresh PUCC every six months.

The proposal also introduces stricter inspection intervals for older vehicles. All BS-IV-compliant vehicles would need to renew their PUCC every six months. On the other hand, vehicles complying with BS-I, BS-II and BS-III emission standards would need to undergo emission testing every three months.

Bharat Stage (BS) norms are India’s emission laws that set the permissible limits for pollutants including carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). These standards are widely in line with European emission regulations. They have been introduced in phases to reduce vehicular pollution. 

BS-IV was applicable from 2017 to 2020, with BS-VI introduced in April 2020. India skipped the BS-V stage and moved directly to BS-VI so as to speed up pollution control. These vehicles emit much lower pollutants and need low-sulphur BS-VI fuel. 

India had first implemented BS-I norms in 2000 and has since tightened the standards over the years. In a big move to curb emissions. The shift from BS-IV to BS-VI required automakers to extensively upgrade engines, exhaust after-treatment systems, and fuel technologies to meet the tougher emission limits. Indian automakers have also pushed towards the EV rise which has seen great traction in more recent times.