NEW DELHI: Union minister
Nitin Gadkari on Thursday assured the crisis-hit automobile industry of all possible support from the government, including taking up the demand of GST reduction with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Rajan Wadhera, president,
SIAM
reiterated the need to reduce GST on automobiles to Gadkari. He also highlighted the need for the government to consider a single nodal regulatory ministry for the auto industry. “The automotive industry is integral to the economic and social development of the nation. With BSVI norms coming into effect from April next year, restrictions on different vehicles based fuels needs to be removed for the auto industry to be at par with the best in the world when it comes to pollution,” Wadhera said.
“The automotive industry constitutes almost 50% of manufacturing GDP, 15% of GST revenue and employees 37 million people directly and indirectly. Till now, 15,000 contractual manufacturing jobs and have been lost and another million are at risk if the slowdown is not reversed,” Wadhera said on the current scenario.
"The auto component industry crossed the $57 billion-mark in 2018-19. Talking about the importance of the sector, he said “The industry currently employs 50 Lac people and contribute 2.3% to the country’s GDP. The current transition to BSVI norms has also impacted our revenues to an extent,” Ram Venkataramani, president,
ACMA
and director, amalgamations component group, said.
Uday Kotak, CII and managing director and CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, “Auto industry needs to emphasize on exports to boost supply. This will help to overcome the stress present in the domestic market. The rupee which is weak at present will also favour this method.”
Kenichi Ayukawa, vice-president, SIAM and MD,
Maruti Suzuki India, appreciated Gadkari assurances to help the auto industry and highlighted the need to collaborate with various stakeholders to break-through the crisis. The government is sensitive towards the slowdown in the auto industry. According to Kenichi Ayukawa, the government is sensitive to the implications of the auto sector slowdown and is taking steps to reverse it.