Government Cracks Down on Old Cars

New regulations in Kazakstan aimed at getting old vehicles off the road may cripple small transportation companies that cannot afford new vehicles, NBCentralAsia observers say.



On August 3, the transportation and communications ministry announced measures to encourage the use of newer vehicles. It is concerned about road safety and pollution because 67 per cent of all passenger cars, 57 per cent of buses and 84 per cent of trucks on Kazakstan’s roads are more than 12 years old.



The ministry says that old vehicles use more petrol and churn out greater volumes of toxic exhaust fumes than modern ones.



It has drafted new regulations to toughen car emission testing and limit the number of imported used vehicles that do not meet the latest environmental standards.



The government will offer tax breaks to transport companies that import new passenger vehicles.



Observers say new vehicles are still too expensive for most small transport firms. According to Isamudin Rysbay, deputy director of the South Kazakstan regional road transport department, it takes 20-25 years to pay off the initial costs of a new bus, while a second-hand one can pay for itself in three years.



“There are still very few large transport companies that we could force to comply with these requirements. In time, they will take over from the smaller companies and will themselves have an interest in buying new vehicles,” he said.



Gennady Pushkarev, the industry and construction editor at the Yuzhny Kazakhstan newspaper, believes restrictions on second-hand imports could force transport companies to keep running their existing vehicles, “patching them up endlessly”.



In order to increase road safety and raise environmental standards, he said, the government should subside new purchases and help pay for bus routes that run at a loss.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)