CHENNAI : Ashok Leyland, the automotive giant owned by the Hinduja Group, said the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and restrictions on truck overloading in certain states has lifted its revenue expectation for tippers and other heavy vehicles to a double digit percentage in financial year 2017-18 from eight per cent growth last year. The company, which also laid out a Rs 1,000 crore capital expenditure plan on Tuesday, said it is planning to set up a factory in Andhra Pradesh with a cost of Rs 200 crore to make trucks, buses and electric vehicles to cater to demand in the heavy vehicles segment.
“The ban on overloading tippers in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan has tripled the demand for our tippers. Adding to this is the success in implementation of the GST, which has enabled faster movement of goods across the country and the government’s infrastructure projects,” said Anuj Kathuria, President, Global Trucks, Ashok Leyland, at an event on Wednesday.“The industry is growing and so are we. There has been pricing improvement and improved sales realisation for us even as other players in the market have been aggressive on pricing. There is space for everybody,” Kathuria said.
On the Defence front, the Chennai-based company continues to focus on bidding for projects to provide land-based mobility solutions to the Indian Army. “We are already sure about clocking Rs 5,000 crore of cumulative revenue from our existing tenders with the Indian Army over the next five years,” said Amandeep Singh, Head of Defence, Ashok Leyland.
Ashok Leyland, which has also been expanding its network points in the northern India, said it plans to spend about Rs 100 crore of its capital expenditure on building electric buses to ply in Ahmedabad and the rest of the funds on capability building around its physical network points. However, the company expects its overseas revenue growth to remain at 10-15 per cent of its sales this year as it faces constrains in the Dubai market due to “the pre-buy of BS-IV vehicles in the Emirates.”