According to recent reports, a BS4 vehicle sales extension plea has been recently filed by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) with the Supreme Court.
Since the automobile manufacturers will not be able to sell their BS4-compliant vehicles after March 31, 2020, both the associated parties have pleaded the government to extend the BS4 vehicle sales deadline as they have to handle the automotive slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic currently faced by the world.
The Indian government has specifically announced that the mandatory BS6 emission norms will be valid in India from April 1, 2020, and the auto manufacturers have to clear out their existing BS4 stock before that. According to the previous guidelines, the manufacturers will not be able to sell their BS4 portfolio to the customers after March 31, 2020.
The plan was going well and running smoothly, though the recent coronavirus scare and the social lockdown has caused the automotive manufacturers to lose customers. Due to the recent pandemic situation, the authorities and manufacturers are concerned that the BS4 stock will be left meaningless after the deadline.
The extension plea has been filed by FADA and SIAM to ensure that the BS6 transition is carried out smoothly after the coronavirus situation has been handled by the country. The authorities want the court to understand the automotive slowdown and how the spread of the virus is affecting the automobile industry on a larger scale.
Since the government has asked the manufactures to stop all the operations in the Indian market to stop the spread of coronavirus, the officials are planning to witness the reduction in sales in the coming few weeks. There has been no official statement offered by the government on the matter as of yet though more reports are expected to follow soon.
