Big News for Harley Fans in India : India via its Union Budget 2025 on Saturday has reduced import duty on high-capacity motorcycles and this development has been a big relief to American brand Harley-Davidson.The import duty was cut to 40 percent from 50 percent for motorcycles with up to 1,600 cc in engine capacity imported as completely built-up (CBU) units. The
reductions are further for the bigger motorcycles with engine capacity of over 1600 cc. Import duty on semi knocked down (SKD) kits has been reduced to 20% from 25% earlier. The tax on the completely knocked down (CKD) units would now be at 10% as opposed to 15% earlier.
The decision is being viewed as a solid positive signal to the new US administration of President Donald Trump. Tariffs on Harley Davidson motorcycles have been a growing friction point between India and the US. Trump’s administration has regularly advocated for lowering trade barriers, particularly on the US-made goods.
Earlier, the US President had said India has the highest tariffs on foreign products of any major country. He had threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on Indian products, too.
“Reciprocity is perhaps the most important part of my plan to make America fabulously wealthy again. It’s a very important word in my plan, because we don’t charge tariffs, generally. Those started so great, with the vans and small trucks and so on, and I got that process going, etc. We really don’t charge. We’re going to load that up and China is going to charge us a 200 per cent tariff. Brazil is a big charger. “The largest charger of all is India,” Trump had said in a major economic policy speech, PTI had reported.
“We’re not the stupid country that does so bad. You look at India, prime minister of India, very good friend of mine, prime minister (Narendra) Modi, you look at what they’ve done, 100 per cent tax on a motorcycle. We don’t charge them anything,” Trump had as said in an interview with CBS News.
“So when Harley is shipping over there, they have 100 per cent tax. When they (India) send in they make a tremendous number of motorcycles when they send them in, no tax. I called him. I told them it’s unacceptable,” he said.
The Indian government said the goal is domestic manufacturing, while
India is also likely to reduce customs duty on simplified about seven to eight high-end products — such as specialised steel, high-end motorcycles and electronic items.