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Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), the country's largest passenger vehicle maker, has termed GST 2.0 as a positive tsunami for the auto industry.
In an interview with ANI, Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales said that dealer partners are working day and night in showrooms to deliver cars to customers. "Our finance partners are busy sanctioning loans as soon as possible and giving delivery orders so that we can deliver cars to customers. The reason behind this rush is GST 2.0 reforms. This has created positivity everywhere," he said. In August, when the GST Council announced the rate cut, most customers who were planning to buy cars had held back their decision. Now they are purchasing cars, making this festive season very good for the auto industry. "Bookings, which earlier used to be around 10,000, are now at the level of 18,000 per day. In small cars also, we are seeing very good traction in terms of bookings. An interesting part is that beyond 100 cities, the response is even better. The bookings have almost doubled-100 per cent growth," Banerjee said. Banerjee said the response for small cars is very good. "We are witnessing 100 per cent sales growth in small cars. In metropolitan cities we are witnessing growth of around 35-40 per cent." The Centre reduced GST on small cars (less than 4 metres in length and engine capacity up to 1200 cc for petrol/CNG/LPG and up to 1500 cc for diesel) to 18% from the earlier 29-31% (GST of 28% and compensation cess ranging from 1-3%) with effect from September 22. Response in all segments is good, but small cars which are now in the 18 per cent GST rate are getting very good response compared to cars in the 40 per cent GST category. The tax cut on larger vehicles is much lower. Vehicles more than 4 metres in length are now taxed at a special rate of 40%, compared to 43-50% earlier (GST of 28% and cess of 15-22%). Banerjee said that other than GST rate cut benefits, they are providing additional festive offers to buyers, "Soon we are also going to launch an innovative finance product where a new buyer can purchase an entry-level car with easy EMI of Rs 1,999 per month. In India, only 34 people in 1,000 own cars. We want to increase this car penetration. As a market leader, we are coming up with such offers and initiatives which will encourage bike owners to shift to the entry-level car segment." (ANI)
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