SIAM: Hiked Registration Fees Will Further Aggravate The De-growth

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has expressed serious concerns on the recent draft notification issued by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRT&H) which proposes an increase of Registration Charges of new vehicles by 10 to 20 times, depending upon the vehicle category, from the present level. New medium good/passenger vehicles are proposed to attract Rs 20,000 Registration fee instead of current Rs 1,000.  A new truck or a bus Registration fee has been proposed at Rs 20,000 in place of Rs 1,500.  A new two-wheeler Registration fee is proposed to be Rs 1,000 in place of current Rs 50.  Similarly, the Registration fee for the new car is proposed to be Rs 5,000 up from Rs 600 at present.

Currently, the Automobile industry is going through an unprecedented downturn as sales of new vehicles have plummeted significantly over the last several months. Mr. Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM said, “Such increase in the Registration Charges of new vehicles would further aggravate the market condition negatively.”

Hence, SIAM has suggested that instead of hiking Registration Charges for new vehicles, the Government of India should first look at implementing various measures as suggested by SIAM to bring back growth in the automotive industry.