About 8.8 lakh Bharat Stage (BS) III vehicles, including four wheelers and two wheelers, lying with automobile manufacturers, will have to be scrapped if the Government goes ahead with its deadline to enforce BS IV fuel across the country from April 1, 2017.
Alarmed by this huge number of vehicles lying with automobile manufacturers, the Bench of Justices Madan lokur and Deepak Gupta on Friday asked the Centre for a way out to mitigate the crisis. The Bench hinted that in the interest of public health it may not come in the way of the Government’s decision to implement the goal of achieving a cleaner fuel.
A decision is expected to be taken by the court by next Friday, the deadline for phasing out BS-III fuel.
The court was hearing a plea of a clutch of automobile manufacturers on their plight on being left with a huge stockpile of newly-manufactured vehicles with engines compliant with BS III fuel. Their petition was opposed by the Environment Protection Control Authority (EPCA), which is assisting the SC in implementing environment-friendly measures introduced by it.
Senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for EPCA informed the Bench that the companies cannot present a fait accompli to the court when the message was loud and clear since February 2016 that they have to gradually shut production of BS-III vehicles before the close of the deadline on March 31, 2016. Although companies claimed they were taken in by surprise, Salve said on the contrary the companies refused to accept orders passed by EPCA from time to time asking them to cut down production.
As a result, as on date the inventory of vehicles with BS-III compliant engines includes 16,000 cars, 96,000 trucks, 45,000 auto-rickshaws, and 6,71,000 two-wheelers, Salve submitted. The Bench told Salve, “There are a large number of vehicles at hand which comply with BS-III.” Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who was representing the Centre, said that a huge cost was involved in the production of BS-IV fuel by the oil refineries.
Salve said this cost could work out to be roughly Rs 18,000 crore per refinery. All this was taxpayers’ money and it was after tremendous pressure applied on the Centre that this deadline was introduced, Salve added.
The Centre further informed the court that any attempt to tinker with BS-IV deadline will affect the prospects of introducing Euro-VI fuel by 2020. Once this level is achieved, the highly polluting diesel fuel will become as good as petrol.
The Bench discussed three possible options with the Centre. One solution could be to stop registration of all BS-III compliant vehicles in which case the stockpile of 8.8 vehicles has to be scrapped. The other option will be to allow registration of commercial vehicles to operate locally but without giving them national or State permit. The third option that the court weighed was to balance out the cost of manufacturing these vehicles with the cost of producing BS-IV fuel and take a decision in the interest of public health.
The bench said, “On the next date, we would like the Centre to tell us the huge money spent on refineries to produce the BS-IV fuel and the likely impact on public health due to continuation of BS-III vehicles.”
Senior advocate KK Venugopal who appeared for Hero Motors informed the court that the company had an inventory of 2.97 lakh two-wheelers and under this category of vehicles, the emission is 0.1 per cent only, which is negligible compared to other classes of vehicles such as trucks and cars.
Salve said that vehicle manufacturers should have read the writing on the wall as they knew the deadline was fast approaching. “By allowing these vehicles to run, we will allow these vehicles to pollute air for another 20 years. “In an issue where citizen health is affected, courts cannot be seen to protect commercial interest of auto manufacturers, particularly when citizens have invested a huge cost to secure their future health,” added Salve.