Allaying fears of car manufacturers, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday that the 19 crore vehicles running on BS-III fuel will not become redundant with the government’s upgradation to BS-IV fuel.

The Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) emission norms are scheduled to come into force from April 1, 2017.

The Centre’s submissions before a Bench led by Justice Madan B. Lokur indicated that there would be no objection from its side to the future registration of a stockpile of over eight lakh vehicles running on the BS-III fuel version.

The court is monitoring alarming increase in air pollution levels in the National Capital and satellite regions.

‘Convert BS-III to BS-IV’

However, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar pushed for the new fuel, saying it was “cleaner” and the oil refineries had spent ₹30,000 crore since 2010 to produce it. Noting that the government was “not wishing away all BS-III vehicles from the roads”, Mr. Kumar submitted that even vehicles using BS-III fuel could switch to BS-IV model.

The court was hearing pleas by automobile manufacturers seeking clarity on the future of their stockpile of 8.2 lakh BS-III vehicles.

The court had earlier asked automobile companies not to frustrate the government's initiative to check increasing levels of pollution by selling BS-III vehicles.

“The Centre had spent thousands of crores of rupees to upgrade technology to produce BS-IV fuel and the companies could not be allowed to frustrate the government's initiative to check increasing pollution levels by selling around 8.2 lakh BS-III vehicles which they are holding in stock,” the court had told the manufacturers.

The amicus curiae, assisting the court in the matter, urged the Bench to ban manufacture and sale of BS-III vehicles as the Centre had spent around ₹18,000 to 20,000 crore for producing cleaner fuel.

Society of Indian automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) had submitted data on manufacturing and sale of BS-III vehicles on a monthly basis from January 2016 and told the court that the companies were holding stock of around 8.24 lakh such vehicles including 96,000 commercial vehicles, over six lakh two-wheelers and around 40,000 three-wheelers.

The manufacturers told the court that they were allowed to sell their stocks with old emission norms when new technology was brought in force on the previous two occasions at the time the industry had switched to BS-II and BS-III in 2005 and 2010.