The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has announced that vehicle sales in India will only hit 1% by March this year.
This comes amidst criticism towards the government for scrapping tax breaks
SIAM officials were initially optimistic that the car growth will amount to 4%, but has had to deal with a much lower figure.
“We were anticipating that the excise concession will continue. Now that it has been withdrawn, it will bring down growth further, but we hope it will not go in the negative territory,” Sugato Sen, deputy director-general of SIAM, said.
The Indian government had previously granted a tax break in a bid to revive car sales, but that ended in December.
“We just have to take the increase and take whatever further volume drop happens,” Pawan Goenka, president of Mahindra & Mahindra’s automotive and farm equipment sectors, said.