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| Sunday, 29 February 2004 |
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Corporates against three-wheeler import ban : David Pieris ready to 'fight' The country's largest importer of two-stroke engine three-wheeler vehicles, the David Pieris Motor Company Ltd. (DPMC) has vowed to `fight' what it claims will be discriminatory regulation of the import of these vehicles. The company claims that attempts to ban the further import of these vehicles due to their major contribution to pollution here is "unfair" discrimination "based on incorrect data." This was in a letter sent by DPMC in response to the Sunday Observer investigative report of 15.02.04 headlined "Three-wheeler import ban up in smoke?" "We will challenge and fight any standard that seeks to single out any particular vehicle for discrimination or any standard that is based on incorrect data and facts, regardless of the time and cost involved," the DPMC said. Responding to the article DPMC writes to say that "it is based on utter and complete falsehoods." The relevant allegations in the letter relate to hydrocarbon emission levels of Bajaj petrol powered two-stroke vehicles cited in the article which said that these vehicles were one of the biggest sources of air pollution in Colombo. The letter states that the two stroke engine three-wheelers imported by them "have been tested and proven to emit below 2000 ppmv/v hydrocarbon emissions in idle emission tests." It further states that "we only import to Sri Lanka those vehicles manufactured by Bajaj Auto Ltd. that conform to the most stringent standards for automotive emissions that apply in India." However, according to Air Resources Management Centre (AirMac) of the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry which is the government authority for testing vehicle emission levels in Sri Lanka, random tests carried out last year on 204 petrol powered two stroke three-wheelers revealed emission levels as high as 16999 ppmv/v. In spite of the lax standard applied in Sri Lanka that allows up to 9000 ppmv/v hydrocarbon emission levels, only 23 per cent of the sample met the standard. Based on these findings AirMAc says that the estimated vehicles that would fail to pass the test could be 32,000 islandwide. The average hydrocarbon emission standard of in-use Bajaj three wheelers was found to be 6958 ppmv/v. AirMac points out that DPMC figures besides being based on "one party" tests reflect the results of tests carried out on brand new three-wheelers which are therefore not applicable to old, in-use three wheelers that form the majority of the fleet running in Colombo. When emission-level standards were introduced last year, DPMC was strongly opposed to the proposed 7500 ppmv/v standard for hydrocarbon emissions and insisted on raising the level to 9000 ppmv/v, according to AirMAc. The Sunday Observer stands by its story, which exposed a corporate lobby blocking a proposed ban on the future import of two-stroke petrol powered three-wheelers. ###### 95% of export market The sentence in the story titled "Three-wheeler import ban up in smoke?" (Sunday Observer 15.02.04) that read, "Sri Lanka represents more than 95 per cent of the market for Bajaj India" should have read "Sri Lanka represents more than 95 per cent of the export market for Bajaj India's two-stroke threewheelers." The error is regretted. |
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