Our Bureau
Mumbai
With the new reforms of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) the car prices have dropped down quite a lot and this will lead to a boost to the auto industry in the second half of the year. But this has led to the sales in August going through a lull phase as people waited on for the new reforms to be implemented.
According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, the auto retail sales surged by 3% last month in August to reach 19.6 lakh units. In the meantime, the sales of passenger-vehicles remained stagnant and only saw a rise of less than 1% while two-wheelers have seen a 2% rise in the sales.
Although August began with festive season enquiries and bookings, as soon as the news of the GST 2.0 came out the sales started dying down as tax rates are meant to cut the automobile prices down by nearly 10%. As people were convinced that the prices are set to fall they have decided to refrain from purchasing until the new invoices come into force on September 22nd.
Along with the GST rates going down, the floods in the North and patchy supplies of popular scooters have also curbed the sales in the month even though festival deliveries offered some lift. On the other hand, commercial vehicles which were helped by infrastructure projects, showed good growth, rising by 9%.
