Budget 2019: Want tax on CKD vehicles to be brought back to 10%, says Rajan Wadhera of SIAM

The duty on commercial vehicles need to be changed too, Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM, tells ET Now,

Edited excerpts:


2019 has just started. How is the demand likely to be this year? How are sales likely to be?

The last nine months we have grown although the growth has been little lower. But most segments have grown. In passenger vehicles, (PVs) the growth is not as good as it was earlier. Commercial vehicle have also grown. Two-wheelers have grown. Overall, there has been growth for nine months. In Q4, we expect to grow better than Q3 and particularly, commercial vehicles have been doing well. It is linked to the economy and the movement of goods largely.


We believe in the growth story of the country and we feel with the new year, new models should see growth.

Since 2019 is an election year, what are your expectations from the interim budget?

In the last union budget, CKD rate was increased from 10% to 15% and we would like that restored to the original level. Also in case of commercial vehicles, the duty which is at 25%, SIAM wants that duty to be increased to 40%. These are some of the things that we will be putting forward.

You have also mentioned earlier that you have some demand from the GST council. What are those likely to be?

What I had said was that two very things are going to hit the industry as a consequence of the crash and safety requirements which are going on, which are good, and also emission which was helping all of us. The is going to go up and on the increased cost even the GST will be higher. So, ultimately in the hands of the customer the price is going to go up.