CHENNAI: A day after the Supreme Court banned the
sale of Bharat Stage III
(BS-III) vehicles,
regional transport offices
(RTOs) across Tamil Nadu were on Thursday swamped with up to 50% more registration applications than normal, mostly from owners of cut-price automobiles with
emission norms
that will be illegal from April 1.
An apex court bench of
Justice Madan B Lokur
and
Justice Deepak Gupta
had on Wednesday banned BS-III vehicles on the grounds that they aggravated already deteriorating
air quality in the country
.
This prompted several au to retailers with stocks of BSIII automobiles to slash prices drastically on Thursday, two days before the ban was to come into effect. In automobi le showrooms in Chennai, dealers were offering large discounts on BS-III vehicles.
Transport department officials said the number of vehicle registrations increased by between 30% and 50% in RTOs across the state on Thursday.
The Thiruvanmiyur RTO office, for instance, which normally registers 100 vehicles a day , had by 5pm on Thursday reported a total of 150 registrations. The Villupuram RTO, which issues vehicles with the TN-32 code, recorded 200 vehicle registrations on Thursday, up from a daily average of 60.
A transport department official said the rise was in marked contrast to a current slowdown in vehicle registrations after demonetisation. It also came at a time when there is an annual drop in registrations because finance firms closing accounts at the end of a financial year typically register a drop in auto-purchase loans.
In 2010, when the country made the switch over from BS II to BS III standard vehicles, dealers had approached RTOs to ask for more time, the transition was smooth and there was no rush for registration like on Thursday, the official said.
The amicus curiae in the case on Wednesday advocated a complete ban on BS-III vehicles, informing the Supreme Court that BS-IV vehicles are 80% cleaner than BS-III variants.
The court dismissed a petition from automakers, who sought to dispose of stocks of 8,24,275 BS-III vehicles, including 96,724 commercial vehicles, 16,198 cars, 6,71,308 twowheelers and 40,048 threewheelers.
In response to the ruling, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (Fada) president John K Paul moved an intervention petition in the court, saying the ban would affect 20,000 dealers and 900,000 vehicles.
The government's automobile fuel policy envisages the industry reaching BS-VI standards by 2020.