Less than one month after the Transportation Ministry announced it was relaunching its car scrapping program, it now announced the program will be scaled back. The program was first launched in 2010 and aimed to encourage owners of vehicles that are 20 years old and over, and have been decommissioned over safety issuesת to recycle them into scrap metal, rather then just leave them in a "car graveyard" – for a NIS 3,000 (roughly $800) "scrapping grant" per car. The program was suspended in mid-2011 over budgeting issues, despite both the Transpiration and the Environmental ministries claims that its benefits significantly outweigh its costs. 'Car graveyard' (Photo: AFP) In late December, the Transportation Ministry said the program was operational once more. The new version was expanded to allow the participation of cars that were 18 years old and diesel-engine vehicles that were 15 years old and over, and offered a slightly higher grant of NIS 3,500. The ministry planned to invest NIS 90 million ($23.4 million) in the program, over four years. In early January, however, the ministry suddenly announced that it was scaling back on the program and will not accept cars "younger" than 20. The Ministry once more cited budget constraints, saying it was missing NIS 2 million a year. Experts slammed the decision as being fiscally unsound, as the State's return form the program is estimated to be three-to-five times higher then its costs, while saving the market about NIS 30 million ($8 million) a year. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter