New Delhi: Come New Year, the prices of automobiles and consumer durables will go up as the government on Tuesday decided not to extend the reduced excise duty rates provided to these sectors beyond Wednesday.
"The government is not extending the excise duty concessions on the auto sector and consumer durables," a senior finance ministry official said.
The move is expected to help the government raise additional revenue in the remaining three months of the current financial year to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of GDP.
The previous UPA government, in order to boost the two sectors that were struggling in the wake of economic downturn, had cut excise duty on cars, SUVs, two-wheelers and consumer durables in the interim Budget in February.
Excise duty on small cars, scooters, motorcycles and commercial vehicles was reduced to 8 per cent from 12 per cent previously. For SUVs, it was cut to 24 per cent from 30 per cent; for mid-sized cars, to 20 per cent from 24 per cent and to 24 per cent for large cars, from 27 per cent.
In the consumer durables sector the excise was reduced to 10 per cent from 12 per cent. In June, the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the excise duty concessions by 6 months to December 31, which is now not being further extended.
While companies are still awaiting a formal communication and working out on the subsequent details of price hike, Honda Cars India senior vice-president (marketing and sales) Jnaneswar Sen said, "Prices will go up as a result of this decision. This move will also impact demand in the short term."
Expressing similar views, Maruti Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava said: "It is a government decision. We don't have any option but to accept it. It will have an impact on sales. I believe sales will slow down in the short term due to this development."
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