Due to coronavirus outbreak, FADA requests Supreme Court to extend BSVI deadline to 31 May

The ongoing spread of the COVID-19 disease and the measures the government has announced to contain its spread has hit auto dealers looking to clear BSVI inventory hard. The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has now appealed to the Supreme Court to consider extending the deadline for implementation of BSVI standards to 31 May. The dealer body had made a similar appeal in February but the Court had turned it down then. The current cut-off date for sale of BSIV vehicles is 1 April. [caption id=“attachment_7401381” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Following this in the past week, there has been drastic drop in sales and customer walk-ins have reduced to a trickle as caution sets in due to fear of spreading the Virus.[/caption] FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said, “Post our initial application, necessitated due to huge unsold BS-IV inventory and slowing sales, getting rejected by the Hon’ble apex court on 14th February'20, there has been a drastic change in circumstances in conducting business as usual. SARS-CoV-2 a.k.a Coronavirus (Covid-19) which emerged in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China has spread rapidly across the globe and also in India. Following this in the past week, there has been drastic drop in sales and customer walk-ins have reduced to a trickle as caution sets in due to fear of spreading the Virus. Counter sales has fallen by 60-70 percent across auto dealerships in these past few days. The situation has worsened in the past 3-4 days with partial lockdown situation in many towns and cities and few district magistrates have started issuing notices of closure of shops and establishments including auto dealerships to stop the spread of virus.” In an earlier communication, FADA had said that its member dealers still have 10 to 15 days of BSIV inventory of passenger cars and 20 to 25 days of stock of two-wheelers.