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Qualifying standards for environment-friendly commercial vehicles to remain unchanged for 2017-18
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     The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (March 28) announced that qualifying standards for environment-friendly commercial vehicles will remain unchanged for the period from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, inclusive. Vehicle models on the current list of environment-friendly commercial vehicles will still be eligible for a concession in the First Registration Tax (FRT).

     "The current qualifying standard for environment-friendly commercial vehicles is pegged at Euro VI. In addition, petrol or liquefied petroleum gas light duty commercial vehicles (weighing not over 3.5 tonnes) will have to comply with a nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission limit that is 50 per cent more stringent than the corresponding Euro VI limit. The qualifying standard is more stringent than the prevailing statutory emission standard, which is Euro V. We will thus keep it unchanged for the coming fiscal year. The next review will be conducted by the end of this year," an EPD spokesman said.

     There is an increasing supply of vehicle models meeting the qualifying standards. At the moment, there are about 350 environment-friendly commercial vehicle models eligible 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 outperform 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 qualifying standards are available at
www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/prob_solutions/environment_friendly_commercial_vehicles.html.
 
Ends/Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Issued at HKT 16:00
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