Maruti Suzuki touches 75k units in retail since start of Navratra: Co official

New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India's retail sales since the start of Navratra, coinciding with the beginning of GST 2.0 regime, have touched 75,000 units and some variants of its smaller vehicles could be headed for waiting periods, a senior company official said on Thursday.

The company is now getting inquiries of almost 80,000 per day, nearly double of 40,000-45,000 per day it usually gets, while it is also clocking close to 18,000 bookings per day, Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales Partho Banerjee told reporters in an interaction.

"Today up to 6 pm, after the start of the Navratra, our retails have touched 75,000 vehicles. We are expecting that this will further be going up by the end of day today and cross 80,000 units. The bookings are very strong," he said.

Banerjee said the company's small cars are finding a lot of traction in the festive period.

"We are seeing very good traction in the small cars segment. In the entry-level car segment, the all-India booking growth is 50 per cent," he said, adding in places beyond the top 100 cities, "the growth in the booking is to the tune of 100 per cent".

When asked about the inflow of inquiries, Banerjee said, "We are getting almost 80,000 per day", adding in normal days the inquiries vary from 40,000 to 45,000 per day.

On bookings currently, he said, "On an average, we are getting close to 18,000 bookings per day." Lauding the government for the GST rate reduction, Banerjee said, "Customers were just waiting for it and this is a golden opportunity for the customers to upgrade...".

In some of the variants of certain models, Banerjee said, "The type of response which you are getting for certain variants in a model (such as Brezza, Dzire and Baleno), some of the variants, I think we may not be able to supply after maybe four-five days. Right now we are able to supply." As production cannot be suddenly increased, he said customers need to get their financing done as soon as possible and take deliveries during the festive period.

The GST 2.0 regime kicked in on Monday with GST on vehicles cut to 18 per cent and 40 per cent, from earlier rates of 28 per cent to 31 per cent, and 43 per cent to 50 per cent, respectively.

Earlier on Monday, Maruti Suzuki India reported retail sales of 30,000 units. PTI RKL MR