Auto leaders hail GST cuts as boost for car buyers, see festive surge ahead

New Delhi [India], September 11 (ANI): Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki, stressed that the new GST rates would help customers who want to switch to four-wheelers.
"The gift given by our honourable Prime Minister to the customers of India, we hope that those who want to upgrade to 4 wheelers grab this opportunity," he told ANI at the sidelines of the 65th SIAM Annual Convention on Thursday.
Banerjee also highlighted Maruti's approach to vehicle scrappage.
"First of all, the Minister [Nitin Gadkari] has given a very good suggestion. Maruti has always implemented the scrappage policy. Even today, if a customer comes to our showroom to scrap his car, we give him better incentives," he said.
He also emphasised that the company immediately decided to share the benefits after the GST Council's announcement.
"When the GST Council announced the rate changes, the very next day, our Chairman announced that we would pass on the entire benefits of the new GST to the customers. Through online and newspaper as well, we have announced that new car sales and even service parts and labour, every benefit will be passed on to the customer," he said.
Echoing similar views, MG Motor has also said that the benefits from the recent GST changes announced by the government will be fully passed on to customers.
Anurag Mehrotra, MD of JSW Motor India, described the GST reforms as a long-awaited step for the sector.
"All of us believe that there has been an ask for rationalisation of GST rates for a long period. SIAM has been asking for this for some time, and we are delighted and grateful that the Prime Minister has announced that, and it has been implemented so fast," Mehrotra told ANI.
He said the impact of the reforms is already visible in customer behaviour. "In the first 10 days of the month itself, we are seeing better levels of enquiries at the dealerships relative to August, which shows that the consumers are responding to the GST reforms that the Prime Minister has announced. We believe it should be in September and October, as Navratri and Diwali are approaching. We hope that customers will respond to and buy vehicles," Mehrotra said.
Further, speaking about electric vehicles (EVs), Mehrotra noted that their adoption is steadily increasing.
"So EVs are a very strong value proposition for any consumer. Last year, the industry finished at about 2.5 per cent of the total passenger vehicle industry. Today, it is already sitting at about 6 per cent. So it has already tripled in size, which means more and more consumers are responding to EVs," he said.
He explained that the financial savings are a key factor. "The value proposition is you save so much, anywhere between 20 to 25,000 rupees on your fuel bill. That itself is a huge savings for any household in India, and we as MGI are very proud of the fact that we have brought to India multiple EV products," Mehrotra noted.
According to him, MG has significantly increased its EV share.
"In the last two years, from less than 10 per cent market share, we are now 30 per cent market share of the EV industry, and the number one selling EV in the country is MG's Windsor. We are very clear that our strategy is to deliver and become a leading automotive brand in India," he added. (ANI)