Auto Industry Warns of More Job Losses If Slowdown Continues

Seeking urgent stimulus from the government in the form of GST reduction, the auto industry on Thursday cautioned that if the current slowdown in the sector continued, there would be further job losses that could have societal and social consequences.

Prior to GST, hybrid vehicles were taxed 30.3 percent (12.5 percent excise duty, 12.5 percent value-added tax, 2 percent central sales tax and 1 percent national calamity contingent duty). Under GST, it attracts 28 percent tax and 15 percent cess like big petrol and diesel luxury cars.

Kerala would oppose any proposal by the Centre to cut GST rate on cars and bikes in the next meeting of GST Council scheduled later in September.

SIAM and several automakers have asked for GST rates to be reduced on passenger vehicles and peg them under 18 per cent tax slab instead of 28 per cent.

A businessman has been arrested by Goods and Services Tax (GST) officials in Maharashtra's Thane district for allegedly evading taxes worth Rs 24.55 crore by fraudulently issuing invoices without actual supply of goods, an official said this morning.

Former president Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said the government's ambitious target of becoming a USD 5-trillion economy by 2024-25 is possible through prudent fiscal management.

Arun Jaitley, India's former finance minister who gave the nation its biggest tax reform, has died. He was 66.

While the auto industry is happy with the announcements made by the Finance Minister today, there's still a lot more that the industry expects from the government and dialogues to bring down the GST rate will continue

Relenting to some of the automobile industry's demands, the Finance Minister has announced some sops to revive the automobile industry that has been caught in an unprecedented slowdown. The key demand for reduction of the GST on vehicles has not been agreed to.

The government today announced measures to revive economic growth and markets including the withdrawal of higher taxes for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and said it would release funds for bank recapitalisation upfront. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters the government had decided to withdraw the surcharge on FPIs which she had unveiled in her bud...

Amitabh Bachchan kick-started the game with Chitrarekha, who hails from Chhattisgarh

The Congress today launched a point-by-point broadside against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his speech on Independence Day that praised the centre's economic policies. The Congress claimed it has debunked PM Modi's comments that the centre would invest Rs 100 lakh crore for infrastructure development and the national tax GST has made "one nation, one tax" possible...

SIAM and several automakers have been asking for a reduction in GST rates for quite sometime in a bid to avoid any further job losses.

The FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme came as reassurance for electric carmakers and reaffirmed that EVs are at the top of the government's agenda. Furthermore, Niti Aayog's proposal to impose a ban on combustion engine powered commuter motorcycles (below 150cc) and then the budget council moderating GST rates on EVs and promising...