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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced Monday, May 16, that he will halt the implementation of mandatory biannual mechanical verifications for all cars over four years old.

The new regulation was ordered by the Secretariat of the Economy on Friday, May 13, and would have gone into effect in November.

But during his daily press conference at the National Palace on Monday, López Obrador said that he will review the new law because it had been dictated by the secretariat without having first been approved by him.

Moreover, he said, the inspections would have represented an additional cost for already-financially squeezed Mexican consumers.

“Before (I came to office), the government was a mess, with each secretariat doing what whatever it wanted to do,” he said. “But not now, especially when it affects people’s pocketbooks.”

The president went on to say that his administration is not going to be charging people for unnecessary procedures.

The Finance Secretariat’s Official Mexican Standard (NOM) 236, which was published on May 3, stated that the new mandatory mechanical inspections were intended to guarantee the safety of vehicles and reduce the number of accidents on Mexican highways.

The inspections would have been carried out every two years for cars from four to nine years old and once a year for older vehicles.

But vehicle owners complained that the cost of both the inspections and additional upkeep of their cars would be devastating to their family budgets.