Breaking: Supreme Court extends BS6 implementation deadline

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has extended the BS6 implementation deadline, but there’s a catch. Only a limited extension has been given, and that too for clearing limited BS4 vehicle stocks.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has ruled that it will allow sale of BS4 vehicles after the BS6 implementation deadline (1 April 2020), but there are various conditions. The sale of BS4 vehicles after 31 March 2020 will be allowed everywhere in India except Delhi-NCR. This will be only for 10 days after the national lockdown for containment of the COVID-19 Epidemic has been lifted. For reference, the national lockdown was enforced on the 25th of this month and is going to remain effective for a period of 21 days, till the 14th of next month.

The slowing economy was already making BS4 stock clearance difficult for dealers, and now the COVID-19 outbreak has made the situation worse. On the 17th of this month, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) had announced that counter sales have fallen by 60-70% across auto dealerships in the past few days. At that time, there was partial lockdown situation in many towns and cities. On behalf of its members, FADA once again tried approaching the Hon’ble Supreme Court to extend the BS6 implementation deadline.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has ruled that only 10% of unsold inventory of BS4 vehicles can be sold during the 10-day period after the national lockdown is lifted. So, it’s still a worrisome situation for the auto industry in India. There’s a lot of scare and panic in the nation, and so, even after the lockdown is lifted, many prospective customers may avoid non-priority things like vehicle purchase to avoid taking the risk of being infected with COVID-19. Even before this health crisis, the auto industry was of the opinion that it’s very difficult to meet the BS6 implementation deadline and it had seeked an extension.

Buyers who were unable to register their BS4 vehicles purchased before 25 March will be allowed to do so during the aforementioned 10-day period, which will be 15-24 April 2020.