India will become an auto manufacturing hub in next 5-6 years: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that India will become an auto manufacturing hub in next 5-6 years.

“We are in the process of finalising scrappage policy and trying to find out rules for scrapping scooters and motor cycles. Scrappage policy draft is prepared, there is some difference among the stakeholders. We are in talks with finance ministry, trying to clear it as soon as possible,” he said.

Speaking at the launch event of BSVI variant of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India's Activa, Gadkari also said that that he has discussed the issue of GST reduction on automobiles with the Finance Ministry.

“The ball is in Finance Ministry's court. Im confident that Finance Ministry will discuss possibility of GST reduction on automobiles with state Fms,” he added.

The industry which is suffering from high GST rate and lack of adequate liquidity had recorded a slump of 18.71 per cent in July, the highest monthly sales de-growth in the last 19 years, data furnished by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed.

Total sales of the Indian automobile sector declined by 23.55 percent in August to 1,821,490 units from 2,382,436 units sold during the corresponding month of the previous year.