With barely 45 days to go before Bharat Stage IV emission norms come into effect from April 1, Bajaj Auto finds itself in a minority list on interpreting the intent.

While almost all automakers say this date marks the production kick-off for BS IV-compliant vehicles, Bajaj says April 1 is the day when actual registration and sales kick in.

Divided house

In the process, this has created a divided house within SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), the apex body of the industry.

“There is a group that believes April 1 is the production date and we belong to a minority of one or two which says this pertains to sales or registration,” said Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, at a press conference here on Wednesday.

From his point of view, there is no cause for any confusion since the watchdog body, EPCA (Environment Pollution Control Authority), had made it clear that the BS IV exercise will be carried out in two parts unlike the previous clean air implementation drives.

New regime

Hence, April 1, 2016, was when BS IV was to come into effect for new products which meant one whole year was given to the industry to change all existing vehicles to BS IV.

This made sense given that suppliers, dealers and testing agencies needed time to get used to the new regime.

“It was only this time that the date was split for industry to handle large volumes and I would reject any objections since it was clearly stipulated as two dates this time,” said Bajaj.

Conversion exercise, pricing

It is in this backdrop that the company has made it clear that it will not be part of the list of those automakers seeking an extension to BS IV in a letter SIAM is drafting to the Centre.

“We have told them that we want to be out of this list,” he added.

The company kicked off its BS IV conversion exercise for its motorcycle and commercial vehicle range last September and completed it in January this year.

Some BS IV vehicles are already being retailed at “relatively higher prices to competition”.

As Bajaj said, any attempt to delay the date means the ones to change are disadvantaged.

“Those who are incompetent and complacent will sell the same products at lower prices,” he said.

One person to support Bajaj Auto was Vikram Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, which had also moved its vehicle range to BS IV earlier.

“He said he feels very strongly about this issue and was pleased that we had taken a strong stand on the subject,” said Bajaj.

While a section of the industry has stated that large stocks are piled up at their plants and dealerships which necessitates a postponement of BS IV, Bajaj said it was a contention he summarily rejected given that almost everyone had been speaking of four weeks inventory.

“If stocks are normal, what is the problem? As far as I can see, industry wants to keep pumping BS III products into the pipeline. Does that sound like the spirit of changeover to superior emission norms?” he wondered.

It now remains to be seen if the Centre will put off the date of implementation at a time when it has already indicated its intent to have BS VI norms in place by April 2020.