In a major relief to companies such as JCB, Escorts, Caterpillar, Sonalika, CASE, TAFE, Mahindra, etc., the Supreme Court (SC) has passed an order stating that tractor manufacturers and construction equipment will be exempt from the Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) emission norms. This implies that aforementioned OEMs can continue to sell vehicles which comply with the current Bharat Tractor Emission Norms (TREM-IIIA) and construction equipment vehicles (CEV) norms. It may be recalled that India’s apex court on 29 March had passed the verdict banning the sales of all BS-III vehicles comprising passenger and commercial vehicles after 31 March 2017.
This move comes as a great relief to all the OEMs which are in the OTR segments.
Anand Sundaresan, President, Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (ICEMA) and Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India, told BW Businessworld exclusively, “We are relieved by the Supreme Court Order as our nightmare is over. We knew it beforehand those BS-IV emission norms were not applicable to our industry as we fall under 115A Category. It goes without saying that they have given the verdict in our favour and I am happy about it. We will now await the official order to be issued by the Supreme Court which the RTOs will likely to come out with shortly.”
It is to be mentioned that a two-judge SC panel headed by MB Lokur orders tractor, farm-equipment makers and construction vehicles to be exempt from BS-IV vehicle emission norms. The verdict came more than a month after the SC had banned the sale and registration of any new BS-III vehicles in the country as it prompted the shift to Bharat Stage-IV (BS-IV) emission norms from 1 April. As a result, there was an inventory of about 8 lakh unsold BS-III vehicles with vehicles dealers across the country.
“We truly welcome the move by the SC court which is very timely. This is because for the last few months, a lot of BS-III compliant equipment was lying unsold at our manufacturing facilities, dealer outlets and warehouses. We have now got a sufficient breathing time for GST (implementation). We, on behalf of ICEMA, have submitted to the department of heavy industry about our preparation for the emission norms. However, the recent SC verdict on four-wheelers and two-wheelers created some sort of confusion in the market which is now cleared,” as revealed by Rajinder Raina, general manager-strategy and business development of escorts construction equipment on phone.
Meantime, the government said that it is finalising new emission norms for tractors.
“The month of April was very bad for tractor manufacturers as the RTOs were not very clear about its registration. But now the sales will take of as there is a clarity on our products,” said Gaurav Saxena, president-international business, at International Tractors Limited.
BW Reporters
The author is a Principal Correspondent at BW Businessworld.
