Reacting to the Supreme Court orders banning the sale of BS III stocks of vehicles, Mr. Vinod K. Dasari, President, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said that industry would abide with the orders passed by the Court.
The Indian auto industry has been ready with BS-IV manufacturing since 2010. However, the sale of BS-IV vehicles was not possible, nationwide, due to lack of BS-IV fuel. The auto industry is law abiding and is in full compliance with the emission norms set by Government that stipulates date of “Manufacturing”. The historical implementation of emission norms also reinforces the current law that stipulates “manufacturing”. The industry has had the capability of making BS-IV vehicles since 2010, but the lack of proper fuel prevented it from selling such vehicles, nationwide. Running a BS-IV vehicle with BS-III fuel can cause severe problems to some vehicles.
While no one pushed for BS-IV fuel availability for seven years to change over faster, this sudden decision – just a few days before the changeover – is rather unfortunate as it causes undue stress on the entire industry, and causes loss of jobs. The auto industry, anywhere in the world, requires a stable and predictable policy which allows for long term planning and investments, Mr. Dasari added.
As a proactive measure to reduce pollution, the auto industry has been asking for years for banning of older vehicles. This would have a substantial impact on the air quality. Further, the industry worked with the government for the fastest adoption of BS-VI in the world (in 3 years), skipping BS-V.