Post GST 2.0, automobile owners see spurt in sales

As Navratris have coincided with the rollout of GST 2.0 regime, automobile dealers in the city have been witnessing roaring sales since Monday.

While Maruti dealers are the happiest of the lot, the agencies selling two-wheelers too say that they have been seeing a sudden spurt in business. Says Amit Mittal of Lovely Autos, “For us, it is as if Diwali has arrived four weeks earlier. In a single day on Monday, we sold out 285 cars, mostly Brezza and Swift. These cars saw a reduction of Rs 1 lakh in price. All those who had been holding up the purchase have dropped in all of a sudden. We too had been anticipating this to happen and had prepared accordingly.”

Activa scooters too have been seeing roaring sales after the slashing of GST from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. The dealers say that there has been downward revision of an average Rs 8,000 depending on the model. “People are upgrading from 110cc Activa to 125cc models as the price of the higher version has now become almost equal to 110cc scooter. The demand for smart, keyless Activas is also on the rise. Yesterday, we sold out 133 two-wheelers, including bikes”, said Gurinder S Honda, a city-based dealer.

He, however, added that it was all a pent-up demand as there had hardly been any sales in the last two weeks of August and the first three weeks of September. “Ever since there had been a meeting of the GST Council, people had stopped buying vehicles as they were waiting for the new GST regime with price reduction in the offing,” he discussed.

Toyota dealer Seema Handa, however, said that the number of inquiries had multiplied since Monday. “The sentiment of the buyers is high. We are waiting for it to convert into sales. It has been a bit slow sale for us but we expect the momentum to gain soon”, she said. She added that the price range of Toyota vehicles had seen a drop from Rs 20,000 to Rs 15 lakh, the highest being for Land Cruiser.