Well, i doubt their intention is to force the manufacturers to set up their plants here. All that they were doing is to look for other resources to collect more tax and since it is an election year, they cannot put more tax burden on the aam aadmi, so they did the next best thing - Get more tax from the rich people.

Something like "Luxury Tax"..??

The Govt. should also seriously start taxing the big Diesel Guzzling "Premium" SUVs and Sedans.. if these folks have the money to splurge on expensive automobiles, they certainly don't deserve the subsidy on Diesel.

Excise duties on SUV increased in this budget from 27% to 30%. Diesel subsidies being steadily reduced. End result Mahindra and Tata sales and stock prices plummeting because they depend completely on diesel engines.

I don't think this luxury tax theory holds much water. How many SBKs are sold in a year? If for simplification a SBK costs 10 lakh, then that is 1.5 lakh per bike. The increase in revenue would be a ridiculously minuscule amount of something like 50-75 crores. Hardly matters in the grand scheme of things!

I agree to this point. I mean the tax on these bikes are already pretty steap. And far as I remember they had reduced this only a couple of years back. Increasing this again makes no sense at all. It is not going to add anything percievable to the governmants tax kitty.

I am ok, if the idea is to setup CKD shops but then government should provide some incentive to these manufacturers for setting up CKD units here like some sale tax exempt or something. At one end government wants these manufacturers to create jobs for the country but in return the government also needs to give some benefit to these companies. All the government is doing is riding on guys like us urge to buy these bikes and they are benefitting from it in free by either taxing it heavily or by pushing the manufacturers to a situation where selling CBUs is proving to be very expensive.

To start with, the government does give land free/ at a nominal cost. There are also cases wherein sales tax/ excise duty is exempt for the initial 'x' number of years depending upon the amount of investment being made and the number of jobs being created.

Like IT companies get SEZ dont these companies are offered land at a lesser price by the state government?

Can anyone confirm ?

They can. But remember what happened when TATA wanted land in West Bengal. Its too much at the discretion of the State Govt. Thus, nothing happens without palm greasing at the highest level. Sad, but true

Payeng Bhai, going by your argument, then no one should flinch with the upward tax revision on imported bikes. Becuase imports above 800CC bikes are lifestyle statements just like SUVs(you can atleast make a case for an SUV that it is required for large families.But superbikes ?) why should a superbike owner enjoy subsidized petrol? heck, why should a CBR/duke/Ninja should given that they offer less mileage and given the state of traffic conditions and roads absolutely not needed. Why should everybody not buy a splendour then?

What I want to say is I see your statement "if these folks have the money to splurge on expensive automobiles, they certainly don't deserve the subsidy on Diesel"
Just because you being a biker donot see a point in having those big SUVs guzzling subsidized diesel but would lap up a superbike anyday, doesn't mean that SUVs would stop making sense to anyone.

Sorry for back to back posts, but had to write this. Tata's were supported throughout by the Buddhadeb lead CPI-M government. In fact what lead to the swift and relatively red-tape free land arrangement for the Singur plant, was the CPI-M government's late realization that the communist policy of shooing away industry from WB would only appease the electorate for a few more years and would completely destroy the economic condition which was already in tatters. This was the first time in years that the state CPI-M government was talking development. What lead to the Tata's being driven away was not the State Government's Policy but that rabid Didi's assault in the form an armed movement and stubborn opposition to anything which CPM does, even if that is good. I tell you this state is destined to be a laggard given the choices people make there

PS : I am politically not aligned to any party and just stated what I felt happened.

Regarding tax hike for bikes >800cc needs clarification.Imported bikes can also mean ALL imports cbu or ckd of any capacity in their umbrella term.

do the price of kawasaki models hike?what about the upcoming ninja 300

apart from increase in taxes.... the government also made it clear that petrol and diesel prices will keep on rising throughout the year.

After being a KTM owner for more than half a year now, i'm not fully sold on that idea. Sure, we get KTMs for cheap and they're good on-paper with good spec equipment, but the build quality is still Bajaj. Maybe a 10% better, but it's still quintessentially Bajaj (by which i mean disappointing). Quality control is a joke.

I don't have experience of riding Japan/Europe built bikes for a substantial period but i imagine they should be a LOT better. I am all for super low duties and foreign built bikes being sold in India at reasonable prices forever. I don't see anything wrong with that. Most of the European countries are in the same bucket as well and I don't see why we are so desperate to be different from that trend.

As Sunilg said, i also don't think that the direct intention of the indian government is to bully these manufacturers into opening assembly plants here. IMO, If they really want them to manufacture in India, they should much rather give them subisidized lands, incentives, tax cuts in lieu of opening a mega factory here. This is just the easy way to milk the "rich people" some more and as a consequence bully these bike manufacturers.

Point being, even though i don't plan to buy a 800+ cc bike in the medium term, i still absolutely oppose this idea. Artificially stifling international trade like this is never justifiable.

No need to go that far, instead you should try owing/living with the Honda CBR250R for a clearer perspective

You really think, every thing made in India has quality issues including KTMs and CBRs?