The Centre will confirm the continuation of the excise sops on December 31, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The previous UPA government in its interim budget had announced excise duty cuts on two-wheelers, cars and SUVs in a bid to help the industry come out of a two-year slump.
When the BJP-led government came into power after the general elections, it extended the sops till December 31. This had resulted in the industry seeing a growth of 10.01 per cent in the period of April to November. A total of 1.33 crore units were sold in the market as compared to 1.22 crore units in the same period last year.
Such success after so long a period of slump has given hope to the industry prompting it to ask the Centre to continue the extension of the tax sops. It seems almost obvious that this (extension) will happened till the presentation of the next budget after which the government is expected to provide a clear picture on the implementation of GST.
