Among the biggest beneficiaries would be truck manufacturers and their body builders as this step will translate into demand for new trucks to replace the old ones.

Muzzammil Khan, CEO, Amma Engineering Pvt Ltd

What are your offerings in construction equipment sector?
Our Group offers tipper trucks, bulkers, truck containers, vacuum emptier, sky lifts, automated mechanism for tail doors of tippers, chassis carriers, bitumen tankers etc. We have the complete choice of products from 1-tonner to 49-tonner vehicles.

Our automated tarpaulin closure system is the latest and a very versatile product from our stable. It is a very user friendly, convenient, fast, effective and safe method for tarping of the load body, tipper body and container body. A driver can simply ‘cover’ or ‘uncover’ the entire cabin top by pressing a button sitting inside his cabin. It takes hardly 20-60 seconds to cover the entire top.

What are the factors that differentiate you from your competitors?
We differentiate from others in factors such as the use of high quality tensile metals, wide range of products, vast service network, distribution channels, customer relationships, branding and pricing that will boost the profitability and viability of our customers.

What is the important factor to consider before buying a dump truck?
An important factor buyers must consider when purchasing a tipper body is the deployment areas of the truck. For example, if the buyer will be using the tipper for heavy loads, then a dump truck with abrasion resistant body is more suitable. Whereas if the buyer will be using it for long haulage, then the tipper bodies with high UTS and YS, should be preferred to reduce the weight and increase the payload.

The second most important criteria should be the budget. There is always the option between a branded dump body and a locally dump body. A branded dump body is no doubt the most reliable, and gives many long term benefits like tyre life, body durability, manoeuvrability and lower CG.

Availability of replacement parts locally is also a critical factor. Dump trucks are driven in heavy and intense conditions where breakdown is always a possibility. We use Hyva (India) Pvt Ltd tipping units as these are available all over the country with their dealers.

How will recently announced budget have an impact on the Tipper Trucks sector?
The street seems to be betting that the government may announce incentives for scrapping old trucks. Among the biggest beneficiaries would be truck manufacturers and their body builders as this step will translate into demand for new trucks to replace the old ones. The scrapping of old trucks will incentivise transporters to buy new ones. But the impact for truck makers depends on the age and type of trucks included and the nature and quantum of incentive announced. A lot of things, including inflation rates prevailing in the country are directly proportional to Indian transport industry. Taking such points into consideration while finalising the eventual budget can prove to be a sure shot way of achieving a better GDP. The trucks and buses community in India will definitely like to see special privileges given to them as the country is currently undergoing drastic changes. Old truck scrapping, mandatory AC, BS-IV implementation are only going to make things worse in terms of expenses, and transporters in India will surely have their eyes along with their hopes placed firmly on GST implementation.

What are your comments on the implementation of the GST bill?
It is really essential that all the states implement the GST together and that too at the same rate. Otherwise it will be really cumbersome for business to comply with the provisions of the law. Further GST will be very advantageous if the rates are same, because in that case taxes will not be a factor in investment, location decisions and people will be able to focus on profitability.

For smooth functioning, it is important that GST clearly sets out the taxable components. Presently the CENVAT credit rules, the point of taxation rules are introduced for this purpose only. However these rules should be more refined and free from ambiguity. GST being a consumption-based tax, states with higher consumption of goods and services will have better revenues. So, the co-operation from state government would be one of the successful implementation of GST.