Central Government Backs Automakers' Plea To Sell BS-III Vehicles

The Centre said that automakers previously in 2005 and 2010 were allowed to sell older technology vehicles even after new emission norms were mandated, when the transition happened from BS-II to BS-III vehicles. The centre said that the notification was for only manufacturing of vehicles with BS-III compliance and not for sale of existing stocks. The Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) said that the BS-IV vehicles to be sold from April are less polluting and emission of Particulate Matter (PM) would be reduced by 80 per cent with the introduction of new fuel.

At present, auto manufacturers have an inventory of 8,24,275 BS-III vehicles that include 96,724 commercial vehicles, 6,71,308 two-wheelers, 40,048 three-wheelers and 16,198 cars. The advocates for manufacturers said that more than 19 crore old vehicles were plying in the country and the sale of an additional 8.2 lakh vehicles with the similar old technology would not make a major difference to the emission levels of the country. The advocates said that the contribution to pollution due to these vehicles would be less than 0.01 per cent.

At the last hearing on 24th March, the Supreme Court had considered allowing registration of BS-III vehicles by the imposition of a compensatory cess.

Source: Times of India