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The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (March 16) announced that qualifying standards for environment-friendly commercial vehicles will be tightened with effect from April 1. Only those vehicle models meeting the new qualifying standards will be eligible for a concession in the First Registration Tax (FRT).
"The tightening mainly affects light duty diesel commercial vehicles (weighing 3.5 tonnes or less). As vehicle manufacturers are making efforts to produce more Euro VI light duty diesel vehicles, which emit 55 per cent less nitrogen oxides (NOx) than those meeting the Euro V emission standard which is the prevailing statutory requirement, there is an increasing supply of such vehicles on the local market. The EPD will thus tighten the qualifying standard for environment-friendly light duty diesel commercial vehicles to Euro VI," an EPD spokesman said.
"As for petrol or liquefied petroleum gas light duty commercial vehicles, the qualifying standard will also be raised to Euro VI from Euro V. The requirement is essentially that the emission of NOx should be at least 50 per cent lower than the Euro VI limit. The emission-control technology of these vehicles is so mature that the Euro V and VI standards have the same NOx limit," the spokesman added.
The current qualifying standard for heavy duty commercial vehicles (weighing over 3.5 tonnes) is Euro VI, which is more stringent than the prevailing statutory emission standard, which is Euro V. The qualifying standard is thus kept unchanged for these vehicles.
After tightening the qualifying standards, 220 out of 227 current environment-friendly commercial vehicle models can retain their eligibility for the tax incentive.
To improve roadside air quality and safeguard public health, since April 1, 2008, the Government has operated the tax incentive scheme to encourage vehicle owners to choose environment-friendly commercial vehicles with exhaust emissions that out-perform the prevailing statutory emission standards. The EPD reviews the qualifying standards of environment-friendly commercial vehicle models annually in the light of vehicle technological advancement and the prevailing statutory emission standards for newly registered vehicles such that the tax incentive is available only to vehicles with an outstanding emission performance.
At present, the rates of FRT reduction 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 and the tightened qualifying standards are available at
www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/prob_solutions/environment_friendly_commercial_vehicles.html.
Ends/Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:30
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