Sources have stated that the logjam over the decision to ban registration of non-BS-IV vehicles in NCR from April 1 continued with EPCA and automobile manufacturers failing to hammer out a consensus. The Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) reprimanded major automobile manufacturers for remaining adamant on their stand that abiding by any cut-off date was difficult as their inventory will take time to clear off.
Manufacturers said it was difficult to set a time-frame by which they would exhaust their BS-III emission compliant stock of commercial vehicles and three-wheelers. There was confusion over figures provided by the society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) in this regard.
SIAM had in the last EPCA meeting claimed that
going by present rate of sales, on March 31, there would be 45,000
three-wheelers, 75,000 commercial vehicles, 7.5 lakh two-wheelers and 20,000
passenger vehicles. Bajaj has submitted to EPCA that it has exhausted its
BS-III stock and was ready to abide by the April 1 cut-off date, which
essentially brings down the BS-III inventory of three-wheelers to 25,000.