homeauto NewsGetting Maruti car was difficult even for IAS officer in early 90s, says Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj
Getting Maruti car was difficult even for IAS officer in early 90s, says Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj
Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj later said that he said this in jest and did not mean to embarrass anyone. He clarified that he was only talking about the state of manufacturing in the 1990s and the journey of the automobile sector from there. Bajaj even added that he eventually did get a car from Maruti.
Getting a Maruti car was difficult even for an IAS officer in the early 90s, said Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj on Wednesday, reminiscing about how he himself struggled to get one. Bajaj, who was speaking at the 61st SIAM Convention today, narrated an anecdote from the ’90s when he tried to buy a Maruti car.
“I had requested Mr Bhargava for a Maruti car in 1994 and he had said that we give cars only to Joint Secretaries and above and you are an Under-Secretary”, he said.
The Revenue Secretary later said that he said this in jest and did not mean to embarrass anyone. Bajaj clarified that he was only talking about the state of manufacturing in the 1990s and the journey of the automobile sector from there. He added that he eventually did get a car from Maruti.
As soon as Bajaj finished his speech, Bhargava said he couldn’t give him a car as he was bound by a Supreme Court order at the time on who could get Maruti cars.
Also, speaking at the convention, industry stalwarts RC Bhargava and Venu Srinivasan expressed concerns over high taxes and regulation costs contributing to the current demand decline in the auto industry.
On industry request for tax relief, Bajaj said that any such intervention was unlikely only for the auto sector.
“Government cannot make a simple intervention of reducing taxes. Continuous borrowing will come back to haunt us”, the Revenue Secretary said.
The senior official also asked the Society of Indian Automobile Industry to do a deeper analysis on what led to the decline in automotive sales over five years.
“Want to understand what has happened after 2017-2018 that car sales have declined drastically. If price elasticity is so high in the auto sector, then why are SUV sales so high”, asked Bajaj during the 61st SIAM Convention.
(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)
First Published: Aug 25, 2021 1:03 PM IST
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