The Indian government has removed the 252 per cent import duty on the cars brought into the country for crash testing, said Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union minister of Heavy Industries (MHI), Government of India. He was speaking at an event titled ‘Towards Panchamrit’ – Conference and Exposition organised by the International Centre of Automotive Technology (ICAT) in Manesar, Haryana.
Earlier if any foreign car company wanted to send their car to India for safety testing of international standards there used to be 252 per cent customs duty but in the Union Budget 2023 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman scrapped this custom duty to zero that will make India compete in car safety testing at International standard. Zero custom duty will be effective from 1 April, 2023, the minister told ANI.
Mahendra Nath Pandey said, “After scrapping the custom duty, we have a very bright opportunity to make India the hub of global car safety testing. Countries like Korea, Iran, Malaysia and many other companies have shown interest in car testing here.”
Currently, India has four vehicle testing centres, which come under the Indian government’s National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP), such as the International Centre of Automotive Technology (ICAT) in Manesar, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) in Pune, National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) in Pithampur, and Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) in Oragadam.
Source – ANI
Keyword: Government of India removes import duty on cars imported for testing