Bikes News

Harley Davidson Bikes Could Get Duty Cut in India, Thanks To Trump’s Visit

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Team GaadiWaadi

Donald Trump has been quite vocal about his displeasure with the high taxation levied on the import of Harley Davidson motorcycles in India

It is being said that the Central Government might soon give in to US President Donald Trump’s pressure of lowering the taxation of Harley Davidson motorcycles in India. The decision to reduce the import tariffs on the US-origin motorcycles could be announced during Trump’s two-day-long visit to the country. It may be noted that this is his first trip to India.

Apparently, the Indian officials have decided to reduce the import tariffs on Harley Davidson motorcycles to a single digit figure on models that have an engine size of more than 1600cc. The proposed reduction in import duties will end up benefitting all motorcycles of that class and should be a welcome move to the premium motorcycle customers in the country.

At the moment, the import tariffs on all completely built-up (CBU) imports of motorcycles are fixed at 50%. Earlier, this figure was pegged at 100% and it was later reduced to half after an interaction between Trump and Modi on the same. However, even after the cut in duties, Trump said that the duties were still “too high” and “not acceptable”.

Speaking on the same, Donald Trump had said, “He (Modi) reduced it by 50 per cent with one phone call. I said it’s still unacceptable because it’s 50 per cent versus nothing. It’s still unacceptable. And they’re working on it.

However, as India brought down the custom duty on CBUs from 100% to 50%, it increased the tariffs on the Completely Knocked Down(CKD) units from 10% earlier to 15% now. It is worth mentioning here that most of the sales of Harley Davidson motorcycles come from CKD units that are locally assembled.

Currently, the Harley Davidson range of motorcycles are priced from Rs 5.33 lakh to Rs 50.3 lakh. 2,676 units of their motorcycles were sold in FY2019. The proposed reduction in duties is sure to increase the popularity of motorcycles from Harley Davidson, Indian Motorcycle and Triumph. Also, it’s worth mentioning here that it’s crucial for Trump to have the duties on the products from Wisconsin-based motorcycle reduced as he’s quite popular among Harley riders.

Published by
Team GaadiWaadi