Seoul ups subsidy for aged diesel vehicle up to 6 million won

The Seoul Metropolitan government said Sunday that it has increased subsidies paid to owners who junk their aged diesel vehicles. Since 2003, the city has been implementing an aged diesel vehicle emission reduction program, which offers subsidies to owners of emission grade 5 vehicles that have been scrapped early and that have installed a diesel particulate filter. A total of 10,000 emission grade 5 vehicles have been junked prematurely, and 10,000 others have been installed with a diesel particulate filter. The city government has increased the cap of subsidies paid to owners of vehicles that are junked prematurely from 3 million won to 6 million won. Vehicles eligible for the new subsidy are those that cannot have a DPF installed and those that are used for livelihood by working class and for delivery business, and those owned by small merchants.

If an owner of such vehicles junks an aged vehicle eligible for the program, the owner is paid up to 70% (up to 4.2 million won) of the value of the vehicle as a basic subsidy. If the owner purchases a brand new non-diesel vehicle, he or she is paid the remaining 30 percent (up to 1.8 million won). Considering that most of owners of aged diesel vehicles prefer used cars, the city will pay the same amount of subsidy to the owner who purchases a preowned vehicle of grade 1 or 2 emission levels after junking his or her aged diesel vehicle.


Seng-Hyun Kang byhuman@donga.com