A new raft of vehicle inspection and compulsory retirement regulations is set to take effect in China on May 1, a move aimed at getting older, less efficient vehicles off the streets of the country's increasingly congested and polluted cities.

The new policies will require larger commercial vehicles to be taken to the scrap heap after a given number of years elapse. Fortunately, the same strict standards don't apply to privately owned passenger vehicles. Chinese motorists can keep their cars as long as they want, but they will have to pay 300 yuan ($48.27) for periodic vehicle inspections to ensure they are still mechanically sound.

The rub in all of this though is that, under the new laws, passenger vehicles less than six years old will have to be checked every two years, while a car that is more than 15 years old will have to be inspected twice a year. In other words, people holding onto their older vehicles for the sake of economy or convenience may be in for a rude awakening.

The author is Luo Ruiming, a commentator.