The intentions may be good, but luck is not with the Congress-led Uttarakhand Government in the State this time. If earlier it had to resist Opposition from within the ruling party during formation of the Government in the State, now the Weather God is spoiling all the people friendly and more importantly pro-reforms policies that the State Government announced later.
Automobile was one of the priority sectors when the State Government revised its industrial policy last year, announcing to develop Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar, as an auto-hub. But today on account of the adverse weather conditions that have caused human tragedy in large scale in the Himalayan State, the automobile sector has dipped low showing poor growth. The matter of fact is that the State Government’s efforts to promote automobile sector by way of developing Sitarganj as an auto-hub may be
underway as part of its long term plan, but commercial vehicle segment of the automobile sector in Uttarakhand has dipped all time low, registering no sale during this rainy season as the automobile experts have revealed. Whereas the two wheeler segment has shown a moderate 10 to 12 per cent growth even during this rainy season, sale of the commercial vehicles like trucks has been very poor in Uttarakhand during the same period so far this year , said Dileep Kumar, an authorised dealer of the Hero and Eicher motor companies, Haldwani, while talking to The Pioneer. The companies are also offering some incentives to push the sale of the particularly commercial vehicle sector, but this segment of the automobile industry has not yet shown any improvement, Kumar added.
Unless developmental activities are taken up by the Government, there is no scope for the automobile sector to look up in the hill State. We can only hope that once the developmental activities start gaining momentum, the industry sector will also show improvement in its financial health, he expressed hope. It is to note that as the automobile giants have maintained, whereas entrepreneurs or businessmen are hesitating to invest in the automobile sector, people particularly unemployed youths who had taken to self-employment in transport sector with the help of special Government financial schemes are now facing a tough time to pay their monthly loan installments on time.
The educated but unemployed youths have deployed their vehicles in the tourism sector after purchasing them on loan basis. With the tourism sector which is the mainstay of the State’s, continuously showing a reverse growth trend of late, the financial health of these educated but unemployed youths has also deteriorated. There is about 20 per cent decline in the registration of vehicles during this rainy season in places like Nainital, while in Pithoragarh/ Almora areas the registration of the vehicles has dipped by about 40 per cent, said Sandeep Varma, Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO), Kumaon Divison (Haldwani), while talking to The Pioneer in an exclusive interview.
More so, in the commercial segment, the registration of the vehicle has been nil so far, he added. However, keeping in view inability of unemployed youths to pay monthly vehicle loan installments and their demand for some tax concessions, we have proposed to the Government to grant concessions on taxes to the transporters, he further said. Under the proposed tax concession plan we have recommended hundred per cent rebate on tax for six months starting from June to the transporters playing in Pithoragarh, as it is the worst disaster affected district in the Kumaon division, Varma added.
Similarly, we have demanded three months special tax concession from June onwards for vehicles plying in rest of the Kumaon Divisions, he maintained. Keeping in view poor scope of business, it is high time for the Government to take necessary measures to push the growth of the automobile sector which is one of the key components of the State’s economic growth. It is to be seen how long the State Government takes to revive this sector.