By Nethra Sailesh
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has said that the company has sold around 80,000 cars in the past four days of Navratri. According to Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, MSIL, the company is also getting double the inquiries about purchasing cars.
On September 22, the first day of GST 2.0 and Navratri, MSIL sold over 30,000 vehicles, and bookings for the cars reached over 75,000.
“After the start of the Navratris, our retail has touched 75,000 vehicles (till 6 PM on Thursday). We are expecting that this will further increase by the end of the day and cross 80,000 units. The bookings are very strong,” Banerjee said in a press briefing.
Within its car segments for its entry-level models, like S-Presso and Alto K10, India has seen a 50% booking growth. Banerjee also praised the new GST reforms and added, “Customers were just waiting for it, and this is a golden opportunity for the customers to upgrade to a four-wheeler…they just need to expedite their finance process to get the delivery during the festive period.”
MSIL might also potentially see delays in delivery due to high demand for larger car models such as Brezza, Dzire, and Baleno. He added that the company cannot suddenly ramp up the production process.
This follows after the auto maker saw a marginal year-on-year (y-o-y) dip in total sales to 1,80,683 units in August from 1,81,782 units in the same month last year. This also included the sale of mini segment cars, declining to 6,853 units against 10,648 sold last year, around the same time.
GST 2.0 included a drop to 18% from 29-31 % for the small car segment. For larger vehicles, GST was slashed from 43-50% to 40%, just a marginal relief for automakers.