Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) recently showed its displeasure with the govt.’s moves to discourage manufacturing of luxury cars in India. Thanks to the latest Union budget, the excise duty on these cars have been considerably increased.
SIAM pointed out that while the excise duties on such cars have been increased to up to 27 per cent, the Govt is on the other hand considering lowering import duty on these cars from Europe to less than 10 percent. This might be done under India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA). “We are faced with a higher excise duty on cars other than small cars ostensibly because they are for the rich. This has resulted in India not developing strength in bigger cars. However, today we are hearing that government on India is thinking of allowing such cars (big ones) to come from the EU at lower import duty as part of the India-EU FTA. We don’t understand the logic of such policy” Senior Director Sugato Sen said.
Via BS