Best out of a Bad Bargain ?

Yesterday Supreme Court decided that vehicles conforming to BS 3 emission standards , cannot be sold / registered , starting 01 April 2017

Vehicle manufacturers are stuck with an inventory of some 8 lakh BS 3 vehicles , valued at Rs 14,000 crore

Manufacturers are left with the following 3 options :

·         Scrap the BS 3 vehicles ( after salvaging whatever parts they can )

·         Upgrade the vehicles to meet BS 4 standard (  technically doubtful  )

·         Export vehicles to countries where these are still acceptable ( very doubtful  )

Allow me to offer a 4^th option , for serious consideration by :

·         Vehicle Manufacturers / their Associations / Car Dealers

·         Central / State Governments

·         The Supreme Court

My following suggestion is based on these  assumptions :

·         BS 3 vehicles are less polluting than BS1 / BS 2 , vehicles

·         Out of our current vehicle population of some 200 million vehicles , at least 10 million vehicles still polluting our climate, are only BS1 / BS 2 compliant

Out of these , Shri Nitin Gadkariji wants to replace 6 million ( of course, with BS 4 / BS 6 vehicles ) , by 2020 , under a “ Old Vehicle Replacement Scheme “ , which offers,

     #  heavy discount ( in purchase price ) to the buyer ( who surrenders his OLD /    POLLUTING vehicle to a government approved / authorised scrap dealer )

     #  heavy subsidy to the Vehicle Manufacturers for replacing those old vehicles

I suggest that :

·         Vehicle Manufacturers Association file a REVIEW PETITION in the Supreme Court

·         Review Petition would request Supreme Court to modify its order as follows :

      #  Inventory of 8 lakh BS 3 vehicles can be sold at a  discount to buyers who come forward to get their old BS 1 / BS 2 vehicles replaced with this inventory

        

      #  Discounts ( over current sale price ) will be :

·         25 % for vehicles which are 5 years old

·         50 % for vehicles which are 10 years old

·         75 % for vehicles which are 15 years old

      #  These 8 lakh BS 3 vehicles can only be sold to the current owners of old BS 1 / BS 2 vehicles , which are still plying on our roads

      #   These can be sold only when the buyer hands over ( a kind of “ Exchange Scheme “ ) , his old vehicle , along with the Registration Book , to the Dealer

     #    Buyers will also sign an undertaking that he shall not RE-SELL such a replaced BS 3 vehicle for 5 years to anyone else

·         Considering that lesser the number of “ Privately Owned Cars “ and more the number of “ Public Cars / Buses “ as taxies  on the roads , means lesser the pollution , Supreme Court should also allow sale of these 8 lakh BS 3 vehicles to Taxi operators / Fleet operators / Car Transport Service Aggregators etc , at a flat 25 % discount ( without exchange ) .

I estimate that this relaxation would remove from our roads , some 20 lakh “ Privately Owned Cars “ , whose utilization is hardly 5 % of the time !

·         Apart from this , Supreme Court may direct that the Central government and the State governments , replace all of their own old BS1 / BS 2 , with the inventory of BS 3 vehicles lying with the manufacturers

For such replacement , manufacturers to give 50 % discount to the governments

Whereas , Shri Gadkariji’s OLD VEHICLE REPLACEMENT SCHEME , has met with a lot of opposition from both , the vehicle manufacturers as well as the old car owners , I believe my proposal would be welcomed by all concerned ( for the obvious benefit that each party stands to reap ! )

Dear Shri Gadkariji :

A phone call from you to SIAM Secretary , telling him of your willingness to make NDA government a party to the REVIEW PETITION , would provide a great relief !

30  March  2017

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