Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja group and a leader in commercial vehicles, wants GST on trucks to be lowered to 18 per cent from 28 per cent.
“Commercial vehicles are core to the economy. When the economy moves, trucks move, buses move, people move. The Prime Minister has announced a mix of fiscal and monetary initiatives. If there is more space for fiscal initiatives, we would urge for that,”Vipin Sondhi, CEO and MD, Ashok Leyland,told The Telegraph.
He said the GST of 28 per cent was high. The government should reduce it for a certain period to kickstart the economy and the sector.
Leyland recently launched a modular truck platform — AVTR — for the middle and heavy commercial vehicle segments. The AVTR range is BS VI compliant and will cater to trucks that can carry weight in the range of 18.5 tonnes to 55 tonnes.
“We want to be among the top 10 CV players globally. The modular truck platform AVTR will help create reliable and differentiated products. The new range will also be exported. The last 18 months have been challenging and the next few quarters will test our resilience,”Dheeraj Hinduja, chairman of Ashok Leyland, said:
The platform offers options for axle configurations, loading spans, cabins, suspensions, and drivetrains for rigid trucks, tippers and tractors.
Customers can configure vehicles that are best-suited to their applications and business needs. They can choose the loading span, the suspension, the diesel tank, tyres, load bearing, electrical, cabin and axle. “This will help customers to cut down on the customisation that inevitably follows after a ready off-the-shelf product is purchased. We are going to provide ready-to-use vehicles,” said Sondhi.
The truck will have both right-hand-drive and left-hand-drive options enabling exports.
The company is planning to have touchpoints across the whole country. “We will have after sales support, ensure spare parts available, trained mechanics, leveraged digital platform. We will also monitor the performance of the vehicle and remote diagnostics through telematics,” said Sondhi.
