Euro Norms News Articles.

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday announced that it had completely switched over to the cleaner Euro-III and Euro-IV petrol and diesel, well ahead of the October 1 deadline fixed by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry. Addressing a press conference here, Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada said: We launched Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel in 13 big cities from April 1 and Euro-III grade fuel was to be introduced in the rest of the country in phases by October 1. We introduced Euro-III petrol and diesel in North-East States on Wednesday.'' With this, the launch of ultra low sulphur and benzene fuel has been completed ahead of schedule. The roll-over happened without a glitch. There has been no disruption of fuel supply in any part of the country despite the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) undertaking such a massive exercise,'' he remarked. When Euro-IV grade fuel was launched in April, petrol prices were increased by Rs. 0.50 a litre and diesel by Rs. 0.26 a litre. For introduction of Euro-III grade, petrol prices have been raised by Rs. 0.26 per litre and diesel by Rs. 0.21 a litre in phases as the fuels were introduced throughout the country. There will be no further increase in prices as a result of introduction of Euro-III fuel. Whatever had to be done has already been done. Mr. Prasada said public sector firms spent over Rs. 32,000 crore in upgrading refineries to produce higher quality fuel. The introduction of Euro-III and IV grade fuel will considerably improve the air quality with reduction in emission of pollutants in fuels.'' As against the approved schedule of introducing Euro-III fuel by October 1, introduction of higher grade petrol was advanced in 20 States and that of diesel in 23 States. In the last leg, Euro-III petrol and diesel was introduced in the seven North-East States on September 22. The Auto Fuel Policy had prescribed a road map for introduction of BS-IV and BS-III grades of petrol and diesel (equivalent to EuroIII and Euro-IV petrol and diesel) in the country.

CV prices to rise on BS-III norms' implementation

Commercial vehicle (CV) prices are expected to go up 3-5% this October with the new vehicle emission norms Bharat Stage III being implemented across the country. In

April this year, 13 cities in the country had moved up from Bharat Stage III (BS-III) to Bharat Stage IV (BS-IV) vehicle emission norms. The remaining cities that currently have BS-II were supposed to move up to BS-III in October. The upgradation was delayed by few months due to the unpreparedness of the oil retailing companies. When contacted, major oil retailing companies confirmed their preparedness with the availability of BS-III in the country from October 1. S Sundareshan, secretary, ministry of petroleum and & natural gas, told FE, There are no hiccups and we would be moving to BS-III in the remaining part of the country on October 1. CV prices are expected to be hiked by 3-5% on the back of the BS-III norms from October, said Mukesh Agarwal, director, Crisil, adding that the research firm expects the demand for CVs moderating in the second half of this year due to the pre-buying on the back of the new emission norms. Medium and heavy commercial vehicle (MHCV) segment is expected to witness a growth of 5-7% in the second half of this year and for LCVs it will be 15%, said Agarwal. Agreeing on the same, Vaishali Jajoo, auto analyst with Angel Broking, said, The increase in the prices will be demand-supply driven. The overall growth of the segment is expected to be strong at 17-19% for 2010-11, according to a Crisil Research report. In anticipation of increase in prices next month, the CV segment has experienced prebuying in the first half of the year. According to a Crisil Research report, the CV segment, that witnessed a growth of 54% in the first half of the year, had around 10% of it due to pre-buying. Around 20,000 CVs were sold on the back of pre-buying in the said period. A spokesperson from Tata Motors said, Tata Motors has not noticed any significant prebuying due to emission norms changing in the country to BSIII (BSIV is already applicable in 13 cities from April 1, 2010) from October 1, 2010.