India’s vehicle scrappage policy, launched in 2021, was meant to clear millions of old, unfit vehicles from the road. Five years on, that is not happening at scale. The framework is in place, but very few owners are actually using it.
S&P Global Mobility reports that only 350,500 vehicles were scrapped at authorised facilities between August 2022 and July 2025. That is under three percent of the 12 million vehicles eligible. The government wants 500,000 scrapped every year by 2026, so the gap is wide.
The problem is not a lack of facilities. India can already scrap 1.5 to 1.7 million vehicles a year, and Coherent Market Insights values the market at 12.8 billion dollars in 2026.
The real problem is simpler: most owners don’t realise the scrap certificate they get is worth real money. It goes unused until it expires because the benefits it carries can only be claimed against a new-vehicle purchase, and most people who scrap don’t buy a new vehicle after.
DigiELV has been the platform turning those certificates into cash since day one, matching sellers with new-vehicle buyers who can actually put the benefits to work..
Where a scrap certificate finds its price
When you scrap a vehicle at a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF), you get a digital Certificate of Deposit (CD). If you use it to buy a new vehicle, it is worth real money. You can claim up to a 50 percent road tax rebate, an OEM discount and a waiver on the registration fee.
But many people who scrap a car do not buy a new one. So a benefit worth more than a lakh disappears, and the person who did the right thing gets nothing for it.
DigiELV fixes this exact problem. It is a MoRTH authorised platform where one can sell that certificate to someone who is buying a new vehicle and can use it. As buyers and sellers meet in one place, the certificate gets a clear market price, and one can avoid complying with the fees charged by the middleman.
Every transfer, paid and provable
A certificate market only holds up when every trade is structured, traceable and settled in one place. Without that structure, certificates get misused, sold twice, or used to dodge tax, and buyers have no way to tell a genuine one from a forgery. DigiELV built that structure from the day the Vehicle Scrappage Policy launched, clearing every deal through KYC and the government’s V-Scrap system.
Working as the verified portal for certificate trading, DigiELV runs every deal through KYC and the government’s V-Scrap system.
Payment and ownership change hands in the same step, so the seller is paid at the time of transfer and no certificate can be sold twice. As soon as the payment clears, the buyer gets the transfer certificate straight away. There is no chasing paperwork afterwards. The buyer holds one clear record that a dealer or an RTO can accept on the spot.
Backed by VAHAN
Every Certificate of Deposit on the platform is issued directly by VAHAN, the national vehicle database, at the point of scrapping. That means a buyer is never trading a document that cannot be traced back to a real, deregistered vehicle. It also means a tax office can match any claim to the same official record.
This one check is why the setup works for everyone involved:
- Owners who are not rebuying can sell an expiring certificate for cash instead of losing it
- Buyers get road tax rebates, fee waivers and OEM discounts worth more than a lakh on a new car
- The government gets more vehicles scrapped, less tax leakage and a clear record of every deal
That last point is what the government needs most. Right now, fewer than three in every hundred eligible vehicles are being scrapped, and the target is 500,000 a year by 2026. People will only take part if the reward actually reaches them. A working certificate market is one of the clearest ways to make that happen.
By giving the scrap certificate a price, a proof and a buyer, DigiELV turns a benefit that used to expire into money owners can actually claim. And as states raise their rebates and MoRTH looks at a 50 percent tax break for the oldest vehicles, that certificate is only going to be worth more.
