Auto industry that has recently started witnessing some signs of recovery may come to a rude shock, as the Commerce Ministry has said that it cannot continue protecting the industry while duty barriers are coming down all over the world.
Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has said that India is protecting the domestic auto industry from overseas competition while signing free trade agreements with different nations and groups, but for negotiating trade agreements one has to keep in mind the overall interest of different sectors. He further stated that the government has consciously nurtured the industry by creating a tariff protection but the time has come when the automotive plan needs to look to what extent we want to continue with that and how we want to bring it down to some kind of global par.
Though, at the 54th Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Annual Convention, where Kher put his views, the minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Anant Gangaram Geete, assuring the automobile industry of complete support, promised that it will be the golden age of the Indian automobile industry for the next five years. The minister extended unconditional support to the industry in every way possible and support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India a hub for manufacturing for industry.
Meanwhile, the Indian passenger car sales in August 2014 grew 15.6 per cent signalling a slow growth. Passenger cars saw a growth of 5.24% for April-August 2014, while Utility Vehicle segment saw a growth of 9.46%. Though, the CV segment remained in negative territory with de-growth of 13.66% from April-August 2014.