[nandishpal]

i am planning to buy a fz1 shortly,will there be a price correction on bikes too?
the bike costs 10L now on road,what should be the price after correction??
please advise the same to make a decision

[ACM]

Well the results are out:

The way I understand it (do correct me if I am wrong) - Heard the whole speech (except when the video streaming hung) and read the budget pointers on Rediff as well.

As far as the budget is concerned - No change, so no drop in price of imports. This is what was actually expected, but not what was rumoured to happen. I guess ground realities are different, all who were waiting for this can go ahead and make their purchases.

[zulfi hansi]

Originally Posted by nandishpal

i am planning to buy a fz1 shortly,will there be a price correction on bikes too?
the bike costs 10L now on road,what should be the price after correction??
please advise the same to make a decision

have to wait a little more and once the budget is out you will get a fair idea what the Govt. is heading to.

[vinaydas]

Originally Posted by vinaydas

only people benefiting from the above is the companies themselves.
so don't expect to buy a 7 series for 35-50 lacs any time soon.

Import duties on cars are bound to come down some time or the other. But do not expect a sudden slash in taxes on imports.
Rather expect a slow and steady slash of say 2-5% a year based on the current scenario.
It would be irrational for the government to slash 50% taxes on any sector.
Imagine a guy buying an S Class for 1cr pre budget and another for 50 lacs post budget. It would be rather unjust and unfair.

[skjlives]

Originally Posted by zulfi hansi

have to wait a little more and once the budget is out you will get a fair idea what the Govt. is heading to.

Watched FM's budget speech. Did not catch any changes to the indirect taxation policy/rates on CBU imports. Seems like there are some sops given to hydrogen/hybrid tech imports but those are not mainstream, right now anyway.

Did I miss something? What was all the news about imports all set to become much cheaper etc? Was it not supposed to be announced in this Finance Bill?

[nvdisdesi]

I dont think the budget was suppose to include this topic. The import duty will come down if the EU-India trade agreement gets signed. They've been quarelling about it for around two years now, and are supposedly very close to sign it now. They are meeting in India, on the 6th of march and hopefully everything gets finalized

[zulfi hansi]

Sops given to Hybrid cars will trickle almost immediately, no matter how insignificant it may be. But Honda for sure may make the most show of this opportunity, let's see.

This is slightly off topic, marginal reduction in steel prices will at least offset the price increase fever of the car companies this year (for India manufactured cars).

[skjlives]

Originally Posted by nvdisdesi

I dont think the budget was suppose to include this topic. The import duty will come down if the EU-India trade agreement gets signed. They've been quarelling about it for around two years now, and are supposedly very close to sign it now. They are meeting in India, on the 6th of march and hopefully everything gets finalized

Thanks. That's useful. So the duty will be different for European Cars, Jap cars (given there's a bilateral discussion on there too) and other cars!
Alas the Mustang and Camaro will still come at 2x their US price (if they do!)

[mac187]

Originally Posted by zulfi hansi

Sops given to Hybrid cars will trickle almost immediately, no matter how insignificant it may be. But Honda for sure may make the most show of this opportunity, let's see.

This is slightly off topic, marginal reduction in steel prices will at least offset the price increase fever of the car companies this year (for India manufactured cars).

Thats a good thing, I strongly feel that there should be incentives/ sops for buying hybrid cars in India where demand for oil increases each day. The current scenario of taxing hybrid cars is bad policy making.....

[akj53]

Batteries for electric cars will also have a lower duty, so Reva and Prius will become cheaper.

Excise duty on local cars remain unchanged.

Excixe duty on Petrol reduced but that will be offset by a equivalent price increase by Oilcos, so they will reduce their losses, customer price remain as it is.

[prats]

The policies of all the goverments ahve always been towards protecting the local manufacturing interests ( read maruti/ Hindustan motors ). So, one way of doing this is by impsing huge duties which makes an average costing car very expensive. Take the BEETLE for example. It costs a tad under 12.5 lacs for the 2 litre 115 pcs powered car. The basic model starts at an unbelievable 9.5 lacs. In India it costs upwards of 20 lacs. So, the duties puts such wonderful cars out of the reach of the regular you and me who drive around in swifts / i20. If i could get a beetle for 9.5 lacs, i would make a beelive for the nearest VW showroom.
A penny for the thoughts of all my fellow BHPIANs

[Aroy]

We are all harping on the high costs of cars in India, but the price consists of huge tax component (about 50%, ex-showroom), and the import duty is to offset this tax component. As I had state before, if the import duties do come down, then the excise duties on cars have to come down also in order to equalise the playing field. Let us pray for the duties/taxes to come down. All of us benifit then.

[Ricky_63]

The cuts if they come were to be in April, not in the budget. So there is still hope.



Cheers

[StarrySky]

My understanding is that the cut in import duty would be under the FTA between India and EU. So the cut in import duty (if it turns out to be true) would cover only the cars imported from EU and the duty on cars imported from other countries/regions would remain as they are now. That could be one reason why there is no mention of it in the budget.

Also, even if the goal is to but the duties by 50%, it would be done in a series of small steps. So the 50% cut may materialise only after 5 or 7 years.

[Urban_Nomad]

Originally Posted by mac187

Below are the issues, as i see it,

1. Forex:

2. Loss in creation of jobs

3. Death of local player

4. Nurture local companies

If we let a free hand, then none of the Indian companies will survive.

I agree to most of your points except the ones in "bold" above.

Why nurture them (local players) or provide them protection? If they are not efficient or competitive enough, they should not be in business, period. The ones who are competitive and efficient should be penalized (read no cover of protection because they are good at what they do)? Why? Every business is run with one singular motive, to make profits. Its not charity, and hence the business which lacks the expertise or efficiency to carry business should not be shown charity either. Survival of the fittest.

Slightly OT but your comments remind me of the very sentiments that are potrayed as "evil" in an Ayn Rand book (Atlas Shrugged).

Originally Posted by Ricky_63

The cuts if they come were to be in April, not in the budget. So there is still hope.

Cheers

Aameen.