Gurugram (Haryana) [India], February 4 (ANI): Union Minister for Heavy Industries, Mahendra Nath Pandey on Saturday said that scraping custom duty for car testing in India will put the country in the global business of car testing.

The Minister inaugurated "Towards Panchamrit" - ConferenceExposition focused on MHI schemes for the promotion and development of the automotive industry in India, at International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), Manesar, Haryana.

Earlier if any foreign car company want to send its car to India for safety testing of International standards there used to be 252 per cent customs duty, but in the Union Budget 2023 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman scrapped this custom duty to zero that will make India compete in car safety testing at International standard. Zero custom duty will be effective from April 1, 2023, Mahendra Pandey told ANI.

"Earlier Custom duty payable of import of vehicles was very high. It was of the order of 252 per cent of declared values of vehicles which includes basic import duty, freight and Insurance charges, which in turn makes the test agencies as Non-competitive for global business and services," Pandey added.

Pandey said that currently, only 5 countries have car safety test facilities of international standards. The United Kingdom has 2 testing facilities. Germany, Japan, China and Taiwan are among the 5 other countries with car testing facility. Now India has become the 6th Global car testing centre. "After the scrapping of Custom duty, we have a very bright opportunity to make India the hub of global car safety testing. Countries like Korea, Iran, Malaysia and many other companies have shown interest in car testing here," Pandey said.

Earlier a car crash test demonstration was done in the presence of the Minister. A car at a speed of 56 km per hour was crash tested successfully at the ICAT centre.

ICAT is India's premier Homologation and Testing centre developed under NATRiP by Govt of India.

ICAT is catering to the certification requirements of all categories of vehicles as per CMVR, 1989 including 2W, 3W, 4W, EV's, Quadricycle, E-cart, Tractor, E-Rickshaw, Bus, Truck, Trailer, CEV, Power Tiller, Combine Harvestorspecial purpose vehicles. ICAT has also tied up with various certification agencies across the globe for providing Export Homologation services to OEM's.

Jitender Shah, Promoter of leading electric vehicle company Jitendra New EV Tech headquartered at Nasik said that the scrapping of 252 per cent customs duty to zero will help India become a global testing hub as from April 1, 2023, countries will start sending their vehicles to India for safety testing. Shah said that this encouraging step would help make India testing and development hub among global players. "This will also give global recognition to Indian certification which will be globally accepted by other countries," Shah said.

Mahendra Nath Pandey and MoS Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar inaugurated the exposition, ICAT Incubation Centre and unveiled some Electric vehicles.

The event was attended by Automotive Industry leaders, Senior Government Officials from MHI, NITI Aayog, MoRTH, MoP, MoPNG, Senior academicians, Start-ups and students. The exposition had displays from over 84 companies which included 33 Component Manufacturers, 11 companies from testing equipment manufacturers and 36 vehicle manufacturers.

The ICAT incubationacceleration centre was inaugurated by Ministers. This incubation centre will enable hand-hold start-ups to develop market-ready products thus increasing the success rate of products developed by start-ups. 10 Start-Ups displayed products which shall become market ready with the support of ICAT facilities and skill sets. This is the first incubation centre focused on automotive products. (ANI)