Commerce Ministry moots phasing out 15-year-old trucks to drive CV sales

Demand, production of heavy commercial vehicles have fallen, Commerce Min

The Commerce and Industry Ministry is proposing phasing out of trucks which are older than 15 years to drive sales of new ones in the wake of a demand slump in the domestic market.

"In the last quarter, production of heavy commercial vehicles have fallen. So, we will request the minister (Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel) to think of an incentive scheme for replacing trucks which are more than 15 years old," Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Saurabh Chandra said here today at a CII function.

Patel was also present at the CII Manufacturing Summit.

Chandra also asked the industry to join hands with the government in this initiative by providing "part funding".

According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) production of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) declined by 21.2% in the April-July period this fiscal to 93,016 units as against the same period last fiscal.

The same for light commercial vehicles (LCVs) were, however, up by 8.27% to 1,71,719 units during the period.

Total commercial vehicles (CV) production was down by 4.30% to 2,64,735 units during April-July this year as compared to the same period last fiscal.

In terms of sales, during April-July period M&HCV clocked 89,226 units, down 12.75% compared to the same period last fiscal.

However, sales of total CVs grew marginally by 4.74% during the period to 2,48,223 due to good performance from LCVs which stood at 1,58,997 units, up 18.02% as compared to the same period last fiscal.