Excise duty cut for Auto, Capital goods, Consumer durables extended till Dec 31, 2014

In the Interim Union Budget 2014 on 17^th February, 2014, the Government had reduced the Excise duty on:

• Small cars, motorcycles, scooters, three wheelers and commercial vehicles from 12% to 8%;
• Mid-segment cars from 24% to 20%;
• Large cars from 27% to 24%; and
• SUVs from 30% to 24%.

Further, to stimulate growth in the Capital goods and Consumer durable sectors, Excise duty was reduced from 12% to 10% on all goods falling within the Chapters 84 & 85 of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985.

Now, the Government has extended by six months the validity of concessional Excise duty regime provided for the Capital goods, Automobiles and Consumer durables sectors in interim budget in February 2014.

(Please refer the Notification No. 12/2012-CE dated March 17, 2012, duly amended by Notification No. 4/2014-CE dated February 17, 2014 and now, Notification No. 06/2014-CE dated June 25, 2014).

Hence, the concessional Excise duty cut for above mentioned goods was set to expire on June 30, 2014, will now be available till December 31, 2014.

While addressing the media persons, the Finance Minister said that the duty benefits are being extended for six months up to December, 2014 and the Government expects the industry to show positive results in the coming months. He said that the Government also expects that the benefit of these duty concessions will be passed on to the consumers at large.

(Bimal Jain, FCA, FCS, LLB, B.Com (Hons), Mobile: +91 9810604563, Email: bimaljain@hotmail.com)