For quite sometime now, if you ever paid heed, India has been following BS (Bharat Stage)-IV emission standards across 33 cities in the country, where the quality of fuel is better. However, the rest of the country still follows an older BS-III standard, which allows all types of vehicles to run on lower grade fuel. As per the current national auto fuel policy, BS-IV standards are to be adopted across the country by 2017, BS-V by 2020 and BS-VI was to be introduced in 2024. That might no longer be the case as the new government is mulling about adopting the BS-VI standards directly and skipping a stage. The reason being that there is little or no difference
between the fuel quality specifications for BS-V & VI and the oil supplying companies can easily adopt them over the next few years.
According to a government official, local manufacturers like Tata and Mahindra have already acquired other overseas auto makers and it shouldn’t be a challenge for them to skip one level of emission standards, as they now have the technical prowess to do so. The auto industry on the other hand feels that higher level norms and technology can be adopted only in stages. As per industry estimates, about Rs 50,000 crore would have to be pumped into the four-wheeler segment to upgrade engines from BS-IV level to BS-V.
Pump the money then. Its good to first make auto sector at global level and then pump in subsidies to promote the business. Allowing unhealthy products so that business can continue is not at all good.