Government may advance deadline for BS-V, BS-VI fuel by a year each

NEW DELHI: Government is set to compress the timeline for rolling out of BS-V and BS-VI fuel by one year in each case. The move is being firmed up following a consensus that was arrived at a meeting recently held with the automobile industry and other stakeholders. The government would inform the Supreme Court about its decision soon, sources said.

TOI has learnt that while the original plan was to roll out BS-V by 2020, the fresh proposal is to implement this across the country by 2019. In the case of BS-VI, the fresh timeline would be 2023 instead of 2024. The decision was taken recently at the meeting convened by road transport secretary Vijay Chibber. At present, about 40 cities have got BS-IV fuel and as per plan the entire country would be covered by 2017.

"Though the fuel quality is not much different in cases of BS-V and BS-VI, the engines have to be compliant to use the fuel. We can't take a decision without involving all stakeholders, including the vehicle manufacturers since ultimately new fuel-compliant vehicles must be available in the market," said an official.

A representative from the automobile industry, who was present in the meeting, told this paper that if the timeline is advanced further they may not be in a position to meet the deadline.

The Indian oil companies have, meanwhile, submitted that they would be in a position to make BS-VI fuel ready by 2020. While this means that rolling out of BS-V can be skipped altogether, the car makers have been maintaining that BS-V and BS-VI norms should be implemented in a phased manner and BS-V should not be skipped altogether.

Sources said the real catch is to improve the fuel quality from present BS-IV to BS-V. Vehicular emissions under BS-IV+ norms will have sulphur content at 40 ppm compared with 50 ppm under BS-IV norms. The bar would be raised to 10ppm under BS-V, which is key to reduce emission levels.