Volkswagen has reached a deal with United States regulators to pay up to $14.7 billion (nearly Rs 9.98 lakh crore) and compensate owners of vehicles affected by its diesel emissions cheating scandal. The German automaker will either repair or buy back polluting diesel vehicles and pay each owner $10,000 (approximately Rs 6.8 lakh). The deal sets aside $10 billion to repair or buy back around 4,75,000 polluting Volkswagen vehicles and to compensate each owner with an additional payment of between $5,100 (approximately Rs 3.5 lakh) and $10,000.

Both the buyback price and amount of additional compensation will depend on the cars’ value before Volkswagen’s public admission on September 18 last year that its “clean diesel” cars were deliberately designed to fool emissions tests, reported The New York Times. However, owners can still choose to refuse the offer and sue the company on their own.

The settlement also includes $2.7 billion (approximately Rs 1.8 lakh crore) for environmental mitigation and another $2 billion (nearly Rs 1.36 lakh crore) for research on zero-emissions technology. The settlement has yet to be approved by a judge.

The German automaker had fitted many of its cars with a software to fool emissions tests. Investigators said that the cars emitted more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.