China plans to impose a tax on exhaust emissions in a bid to get the worst polluting vehicles off the roads, reported China Daily.

The government will gradually push for the removal of some 18m high-emission vehicles after 1 October, said Ren Hongyan, an official from the department of pollution protection under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

High-emission cars and trucks make up 28 per cent of all vehicles in China, but account for 75 per cent of emission pollutants, according to the ministry.