Love Classic Cars : When it comes to import of cars; India has pretty stringent laws. We had around 100% import tax for new cars and until recently importing used cars was illegal. Indian citizens can now import cars that is 50 years old from the date when it was manufactured and registered before the year 1975.
As per the latest and new Import Policy, as per the DGFT notifications, the Director General of Foreign Trade, Government of India Mr Viveck Goenka had amended the foreign trade policy under which free import can be done by actual users of vehicles/carriages more than 50 years old (from the date of first registration after first sale). which is a good thing as this is a free import and no import license is required
During this year all cars which are manufactured and registered abroad before 1975 are allowed for importation. This policy continues on a rolling year basis. However, there are some caveats. These cars will also not be traded lightly in the domestic market — only real users will be able to import them. In such cases, dealers will be subject to stringent terms and conditions when the car is imported like a “no sale for 5 years” from the date of import.
For the enthusiasts in the Indian market, particularly, the hardcore classic car enthusiasts, this is definitely great news. So that is an import policy similar to what you have in other countries. Like Canada, cars that are imported to Canada mostly should be 15 years old while for imported cars to USA, it should be 25 years old.
This rule is only for the young and beautiful car culture prevailing in India and 50 years is a long time and we happen to see the list of cars in this segment also. We’d definitely like to see more classic Porsches, BMWs and even Mercedes Benz models. So they’ll be a ton of muscle car that’ll fall under this rule too.