Regional Meeting at Patna

Automobile dealers of Bihar & Jharkhand held an interactive meeting with Pancham Lal, Transport Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Government of Bihar, on 24th September 2005, wherein Binod Agarwal, President, FADA and a few other Council Members, namely, Mohan Himatsingka (Bihar), Jay Prakash (Orissa) and Om Prakash Agarwala (Kolkata)) also participated.

The issues raised at the meeting were: ­

1.	Need for dispensing with the requirement of taking vehicles to RTOs for inspection and registration and empowering automobile dealers to do registration of non-transport vehicles as implemented by states of Delhi and Rajasthan.
2.	Strengthening & expanding the network of PUC centres for periodic inspection of vehicles in the interest of clean environment, and involving the automobile dealers and petrol pumps in this task as elsewhere in the country.
3.	Rationalisation of registration charges and road tax on commercial vehicles at par with the registration charges and road tax applicable in the state of Jharkhand to stop undue diversion of trade from the state of Bihar to Jharkhand.
4.	Moderating the current 200% penalty for non-payment of permit fees within the stipulated time to a reasonable level.
5.	Issuance of Certificate of Fitness and Temporary Registration by the dealers.

 
The Transport Commissioner-cum-Secretary assured that he would look into the issues raised and suggestions made at the meeting. He also invited the dealers to send their suggestions from time to time for improvement in registration procedures.

Binod Agarwal, President, FADA, in his address, briefed the media and participants on the major initiatives taken by FADA. He said that in view of the growing complexities of managing automobile dealerships, FADA would start a "Helpline" for the members soon. The Helpline would have a panel of experts in the areas of taxation, environment pollution, urban planning & development, economic policies, etc., so that the advice, on reference, is available to automobile dealers on issues related to these areas.

He revealed that in view of the shortage of trained manpower faced by dealerships across the country, FADA had taken a major initiative to start certificate/diploma courses, in association with other reputed institutions, to train Sales Executives/Spare Parts Supervisors and Service Supervisors for placement in automobile dealerships and their workshops. To begin with, the training programme would be started at Mumbai and Pune and gradually extended to other parts of the country.

Referring to the growing membership of FADA, he stated that FADA would endeavour to strengthen the state and city level associations of automobile dealers in order that local issues facing the automobile dealers were taken up by these associations for speedy redressal. He felt that the regional and local associations of automobile dealers had to assume the role of a bridge between FADA and its members spread across the country, as it was difficult for office bearers of FADA to reach out to each and every member. In this context, he welcomed the move to form an association of automobile dealers in Bihar.

He announced that the 4th Auto Summit i.e. Auto Summit 2006, on the Theme "Changing Face of Auto Retailing - A Global Perspective" would be held on 13th & 14th January 2006 at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi. The Summit is expected to attract participation of over 1000 delegates from within India and abroad.

In the afternoon, a delegation of FADA, led by President, called on Ravi Mittal, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Government of Bihar in his office to discuss various issues relating to VAT. It was pointed out to the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes that the prevailing VAT rate of 12.5% on used cars in Bihar was driving the customers away to the brokers in unorganised sector. FADA submitted to the Commercial Tax Commissioner that since the used cars already suffered the sales taxi VAT at the time of new sale, VAT on used cars should be pegged at 4% on the value addition at dealership or 1 % of the gross dealer invoice value, which would, FADA members averred, benefit both the Government and the customers. While the State Government would be able to get revenue, which it was otherwise losing because of diversion of trade to the brokers in unorganised sector, the customers would feel assured of the quality of product and after-sales service.

Ravi Mittal informed that VAT on secondhand vehicles would be reduced to 4%, as per the guidelines received by him from the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. He said that in case the Committee, at a later date, decided to further lower the tax on secondhand vehicles, the same would be implemented in Bihar as well. He assured that action would be initiated as soon as the election process was over in Bihar.

Later during the day, President and other council members of FADA took this opportunity to visit the showroom and workshop of Vau's Automobiles, the newly appointed Maruti Dealer in Patna. FADA members were highly impressed with the facilities & infrastructure available at this new dealership, which compared with the best in the world.