India proposes increase of import duty on US-made motorcycles

- These import duties are concerning American-made bikes above 800cc

- Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycles will be affected

- This policy change could see huge increase in prices

The Indian government has proposed to increase the import duties for bikes coming to India from the United States. This step is being taken as a counter to the increased tax imposed by US on certain steel and aluminium products coming from India. 

The Indian government has proposed an additional duty hike of 50 per cent on completely-built-up(CBU) motorcycles above 800cc. If this economic development goes through, Indian Motorcycles and Harley-Davidson will be affected, with the former one being the most affected among the two. 

Harley-Davidson currently sells three types of motorcycles in India, the fully manufactured one like the Street 750, the completely-knocked-down(CKD) ones like the Sportster family and completely-built-up(CBU) ones like the Street Glide. While the first two ones won’t be affected by this policy change, the CBU bikes will see a massive hike in prices. However, these CBU bikes don’t really fetch numbers for the American manufacturer. But in the case of Indian Motorcycles, all their bikes are imported into India through CBU route. So they are bound to see drop in sales in case the company decides to pass the entire price increase to customers. 

The official statement from the government on this issue is expected to be released in the next few weeks. If it goes through, both companies are bound to be affected.