BS III vehicles: Telangana dealers panic, push vehicle sales; offer discounts

Hyderabad: Following the ban imposed by the Supreme Court of India on sale and registration of BS-III vehicles, automobile dealers are offering discounts of between Rs 7,500 and Rs 15,000 and other benefits like free registration and insurance to anyone who will buy the old vehicles.

The apex court on Wednesday banned the sale and registration of all vehicles not complying with Bharat Stage-IV emission standards from April 1, 2017 and there is only one day left for dealers to clear their stock.

President of the AP and Telangana Automobile Dealers’ Association, Y. Rama Koteswara Rao, said two-wheeler dealers in the state will be badly hit since they have inventory of nearly 27,000 vehicles. “Last year, the government banned sale and registration of BS-III cars and that led to less stockpiling of that category of four-wheelers in the state. Most of the two-wheeler dealers have large stocks. They announced special discounts to clear the sto-ck before Friday,” he said.

Two-wheeler majors Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle announced huge discounts early on Thursday. Hero is offering Rs 8,000 flat discount on HF Deluxe and Splendor+ vehicles and Rs 10,000 off on Glamour and Passion models. On Hero scooters there is a discount of  Rs 14,000. Honda announced discounts of Rs 7,500 to Rs 15,000 on some models.

Figures from the transport department till Thursday evening 7 pm show that 7,300 temporary registration certificates were generated by two-wheeler dealers across the state against the average of 3,800. “Dealers will generate temporary registrations till 10 pm. Based on current statistics, the number will rise to 2,000 more,” an official said.

Another official said that there was no clarity about ‘registration’ in the SC order meant temporary registration or permanent. “As per the Motor Vehicle Act, after generating a temporary registration, the motorist will have 30 days time for a permanent registration. We are waiting for clarity on whether permanent registrations for the vehicles registered temporarily before March 31, 2017 should be done or not,” the official said.

Stock clearance
27,000 Inventory of BS-III two-wheelers in TS
10,000 Stock of BS-III motor-cycles and scooters in Hyderabad
2,000 Expected sales to rise
9,300 RTA officials’ expectations on total sales till end of the day
20,000 Vehicles expected to be sold on Friday