Govt proposes 3-year PUCC validity for BS-VI vehicles

New Delhi, July 27 (AHN) The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a draft notification proposing a major overhaul of the Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) validity and renewal system. The proposed new rules significantly ease the compliance burden for newer, cleaner vehicles while tightening testing frequencies for older, more polluting vehicles.

In the case of BS-VI private vehicles that are up to 6 years old, the PUCC validity has been extended from one year to three years to ease the compliance burden for owners of new vehicles that are less polluting.

For BS-VI Commercial Vehicles that are up to 6 years old, the PUCC validity is proposed to be two years.

According to the proposed norms, BS-VI vehicles that are 6 to 10 years old would require annual renewal, while BS-VI vehicles that are above 10 years old must renew their Pollution Under Control certificates every 6 months

In the case of BS-IV vehicles, the proposed rules have become more stringent and renewal of the PUCC validity will be required every 6 months, down from the previous one-year requirement.

BS-I, BS-II and BS-III Vehicles will have to renew their PUCC validity every 3 months to strictly monitor higher tailpipe emissions.

BS, or Bharat Stage, refers to India's vehicle emission standards that set limits on pollutants, such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM). These standards are aligned with European emission norms, which were introduced earlier in countries such as Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

While BS-IV was applicable from 2017 to 2020, the more stringent BS-VI has been in force since April 2020. India skipped BS-V and jumped directly to BS-VI to accelerate pollution control. These vehicles emit far lower pollutants and require low-sulphur BS-VI fuel.

Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) fuels are ultra-clean vehicular fuels introduced nationwide across India on April 1, 2020, featuring a maximum sulphur cap of 10 parts per million (ppm) alongside reduced aromatic hydrocarbons. The sulphur content dropped sharply from 50 ppm in BS-IV fuels down to a max of 10 ppm in BS-VI.