Indian Motorcycle, the premium American motorcycle manufacturer and also a direct rival to Harley-Davidson, has announced a price on its entire product lineup in India. The announcement comes after the government allowed a reduction in customs duty. Indian Motorcycle has slashed the price of its products, starting from the Scout Sixty to the Roadmaster, by up to Rs 3 lakh. The prices of all nine Indian motorcycles available in India have been revised effective immediately. This brings down the price of Indian’s most affordable motorcycle Scout Sixty further down to an attractive Rs 10.99 lakh (ex-showroom).
“We are glad that the Government has rationalised the import duty structure to 50 percent across the range for imported bikes. The new attractive price of our products available in India will definitely lead to more sales. This will also create opportunities for enthusiasts to buy our iconic products and be a part of the Indian Motorcycle family,” Pankaj Dubey, Managing Director; Country Head, Polaris India Pvt. Ltd. said while commenting on the import price cut on the Indian line-up.
Last month, the government announced a reduction in duties on Completely Built Up or CBU units from 75% to 50% for motorcycles above 800cc, and for those below 800cc will see a drop from 60% to 50%. However, for Completely Knocked Down (CKD) units, the duty was raised from 10% to 15% and for Completely Built engines from 20% to 25%.
This meant that brands like Triumph Motorcycles and Harley-Davidson, who have worked hard to increase localisation while assembling the bikes in India, would face a negative impact of it. But brands like Aprilia, Yamaha, Indian, BMW Motorrad and Moto Guzzi would benefit from it having no assembly infrastructure in India.
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Considering the positive and negative impacts on manufacturers in the same industry, automakers struggling to make in India will be looking to the government for some reform on this bill.