Following Typhoon Soudelor, which damaged many vehicles, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday encouraged car owners to scrap unused cars to save taxes, offering a NT$1,000 incentive for each scrapped car of at least 10 years of age.
Resource Recycling Fund Management Committee director Hsu Yung-hsing (許永興) said that car owners have to pay up to NT$16,220 in taxes for license plates, fines and insurance for a car per year and more than NT$1,000 for a motorcycle, even if they are not used.
About 610,000 cars are junked annually, only 73 percent of which are recycled, creating 160,000 unused vehicles every year and creating an eyesore, Hsu said.
Car owners have to be selective about recyclers for legal and environmental reasons, and they can consult the EPA’s Web site to make an appointment with an approved junk yard, he said.
Owners can normally sell a disused vehicle to recyclers for thousands of New Taiwan dollars, depending on the state of the vehicle, he said.
Owners must get documents from the recycler and present them to the EPA to claim the NT$1,000 the agency is offering for each scrapped car of at least 10 years of age, Hsu said, adding that scrapped motorcycles of at least seven years of age come with a NT$300 incentive.
The EPA called on the public to report cars without license plates to environmental agencies and those with license plates to the police.
Those who would like to dispose of their cars can call the EPA’s toll-free hotline on 0800-085-717, or visit its Web site at recycle.epa.gov.tw/Recycle.
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