[LLL]

Had an idea..

Instead of tying in the excise duty to just the size of the car, would it be also advisable to give duty cuts for safety equipment like Airbags?

Maybe a 2% cut if the car has driver side airbag, 4% for both front and passenger airbags and another 2% for side bags.

This would make it attractive for manufacturers and consumers to go in for cars with Airbags. Govt would get a intangible benefit of lesser accidents and lesser injuries/deaths in accidents.

[goldie_malhotra]

That would be a nice idea - though dont think it will work well for smaller cars.

For people going for smaller cars, price is generally a limiting factor, and they dont care whether airbags cost them 40k or 50k, as long as it costs them a lot extra, and they dont see a lot of benefit in it.

Ditto for ABS/EBD as well ...

[LLL]

Originally Posted by goldie_malhotra

That would be a nice idea - though dont think it will work well for smaller cars.

For people going for smaller cars, price is generally a limiting factor, and they dont care whether airbags cost them 40k or 50k, as long as it costs them a lot extra, and they dont see a lot of benefit in it.

Ditto for ABS/EBD as well ...

But thats the whole idea..share the price.
For a 3 lakh car, 4% duty cut amounts to 12k. if the Airbag costs 40k, car owner has to pay only 28k extra. Maybe the deal can be made attractive by allowing more duty cuts and insurance discounts...

or

allow the manufacturers to sell the car with and without airbags. 3 lakh for a car without airbag and 3.28 lakh for care with airbag.

As of today there is no encouragement to go for airbags.

[Rehaan]

Or it could also encourage manufacturers to make really cheap (in price and quality) airbags etc, which might not be a good thing....

cya
R

[BuRnT RuBbEr]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Or it could also encourage manufacturers to make really cheap (in price and quality) airbags etc, which might not be a good thing....

real cheap just working airbags that have a manufacturing cost of say 10 k?..increase the price by 20k ( or more?)...and get a duty cut on the car...

just that those airbags may or may not work ...or may work at the wrong time...creating double trouble.

IMO, a strict quality control by the government needs to be imposed on all manufacturers and then we can think about giving such offers. maybe one can force them to get a product passed before they can start mass production. Just like TRAI for telecom...

[sumitsingh]

basically , the idea would be to bring down the initial cost of ownership of the vehicle and to encourage the use of safety equipment in the vehicles by providing more incentives to them.

An instance of this is the discounts insurance companies give for vehicles that have airbags in them and /or higher crash test results.

my two cents
-Sumit

[BuRnT RuBbEr]

Originally Posted by sumitsingh

basically , the idea would be to bring down the initial cost of ownership of the vehicle and to encourage the use of safety equipment in the vehicles by providing more incentives to them.

An instance of this is the discounts insurance companies give for vehicles that have airbags in them and /or higher crash test results.

my two cents
-Sumit

lower parking taxes could also be possible. lower registration and all that jazz. All this has grown to a big amount and generally considered an unwanted burden. any relaxation in this form would definately be an attraction.