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The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (February 10) announced that qualifying standards for environment-friendly commercial vehicles will be tightened with effect from April 1, 2015. Only those vehicle models meeting the qualifying standards will be eligible for a concession in the First Registration Tax (FRT).
"At present, the supply of Euro VI heavy duty commercial vehicles (weighing over 3.5 tonnes) with a better environmental performance is sufficient and the EPD has thus tightened the qualifying standards to Euro VI for environment-friendly heavy duty commercial vehicles," a spokesman for the EPD said.
As the supply of Euro VI light duty commercial vehicles (weighing 3.5 tonnes or less) is still very limited, the EPD has decided to maintain the current qualifying standards. Specifically, the emissions from environment-friendly light duty commercial vehicles are required to be at least 50 per cent lower than Euro V emission limits.
After tightening the qualifying standards, 130 out of 469 vehicle models that are currently environment-friendly commercial vehicle models can retain their eligibility for the tax incentive. The current qualifying standards were set between Euro V and VI levels.
Since April 1, 2008, the Government has operated the tax incentive scheme to incentivise vehicle owners to choose environment-friendly commercial vehicles. The EPD reviews the qualifying standards of environment-friendly commercial vehicle models annually in the light of technological advancement and the prevailing statutory emission standards such that the tax incentive is available only to vehicles with outstanding emission performance.
At present, the rates of reduction of the FRT for environment-friendly commercial vehicle classes range from 30 per cent to 100 per cent subject to vehicle-class-specific caps per vehicle.
The EPD regularly updates the list of environment-friendly commercial vehicle models as new models enter the local market. The updated list of environment-friendly commercial vehicle models as well as the tightened qualifying standards are available at
www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/prob_solutions/environment_friendly_commercial_vehicles.html.
Ends/Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:02
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