BSVI deadline pushed by 10 days by he Supreme Court amidst COVID-19 outbreak
Many car manufacturers had been demanding the government to shift the BS6 deadline of April 1,2020 since, much of the BS4 stock is still left unsold
The Federation of Automotive Dealers Associations or FADA was seeking opportunities to sell BS4 stock of cars before March 31st, 2020 i.e. before the BS6 deadline hits. Although, due to the ongoing pandemic of Coronavirus, selling those cars hasn’t been easy for them.
A nationwide lockdown was imposed to contain the pandemic from becoming an epidemic. This, although important and necessary for the health and safety, resulted in a big slowdown for businesses. The automotive sector was already on a downfall so, it got affected quite strong. Hence, the FADA had been demanding an extension of the BS6 deadline from the supreme court. The supreme court has announced a 10 day “conditional” extension for the same. Under this extension, the dealerships will be allowed to sell just 10% of their leftover BS4 stocks after 10 days from the 1st of April, 2020.
However, Delhi NCR will not be getting this provision.
India’s automotive sector had been losing as much as Rs. 1000 crore per day and even after heavy discounts, dealerships are not doing well due to the scare of Covid-19 long before the lock down was implemented. The dealers had demanded an unconditional extension of 2 months so, the 10 day conditional extension might not mean anything at all. Add this with the existing lock down period upto April 15th (extension possible) and you’ll know that it’s a hard business to sustain if you’re a dealer.
Every sector of the country has been getting governmental help apart from the automotive sector. The auto-motives are at almost Rs. 6286 crores loss already. It’s hard to understand the decision of the supreme court owing to the lockdown. We would have supported the decision of the court without a doubt due to the pollution scare if things were normal, we find it a bit too harsh on the dealers right now. A 15 day unconditional extension after the lockdown would also manage to do well with them if not a full month. Let’s hope some relief happens for the car dealers amidst the ongoing tension and panic of the global pandemic.
