FM allocates Rs 14,883 crore for JNNURM

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday provided a major boost to the struggling commercial vehicle sector by allocating Rs 14,883 crore for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in the budget 2013-14, however he did not spare the rich and increased import duty on luxury cars, excise duty on personal buyers of sports utility vehicles.

Presenting the union budget for the next fiscal in parliament, Chidambaram said he has provided Rs 14,883 crore to purchase around 10,000 buses under the city modernisation scheme.

While the finance minister decided to keep the excise duty constant at 12% for all the cars, he decided to increase excise duty on Sports Utility Vehicles from 27% to 30%.

"SUVs occupy a greater parking space, we intend to increase excise duty on SUVs from 27% to 30%," he however clarified, "Utility Vehicles registered as taxis would not be levied this additional tax."

Deciding to tax the rich and their swanky cars, the finance minister has increase import duty on fully built cars from 75% to 100% and motorcycles above 800 cc, the duty has gone up from 60% to 75%.The carmakers that would be impacted by this move, would be Porsche, Lamborghini who import fully built cars into India.

The finance minister has however extended the subsidy benefits for electric cars till FY-15.

Also read: Budget 2013: Impact on the Auto Sector