Carmakers post record sales in Oct on festive demand, GST cut

‘In October, Maruti Suzuki India did a retail of 2,42,096 units, which is a growth of almost 20 per cent over the last year’

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

Top carmakers led by Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Kia India on Saturday reported record sales in the domestic market riding on festive demand boosted by GST rate cut.

Other manufacturers such as Skoda Auto India and Toyota Kirloskar Motor also posted impressive growth in sales in October.

“In October, we did a retail of 2,42,096 units, which is a growth of almost 20 per cent over the last year,” Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Partho Banerjee, told reporters in a virtual interaction.

It was the highest-ever retail sale that the company did in an October.

In the 40-days festival period starting from Navratra, he said the company had 5 lakh bookings with 4.1 lakh retail sales, “which is almost double of the last year”.

Banerjee said before the GST reforms there were challenges in the new set of first-time car buyers entering the market but after GST 2.0 many customers have started coming to showrooms.