A First In 10 Years: Maruti To Stop Production At Haryana Plants For 2 Days

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Chennai on Sunday the GST Council would take the call on reducing the tax on motor vehicles. "One of the suggestion was the reduction of GST for the automobile sector, that of course will have to go to the (GST) Council," she said.

Representational Picture (AFP)

Mumbai: One of India's largest vehicle maker, Maruti Suzuki, on Wednesday, said it has decided to shut down production of passenger vehicles in Gurugram and Manesar plants in Haryana for two days. This is perhaps for the first time in 10 years; the company has announces "no production days". "Maruti Suzuki India Limited has decided to shut down the passenger vehicle manufacturing operations of Gurugram Plant and Manesar Plant in Haryana for two days, on 7th and 9th September, 2019," the company said in an exchange filing."Both days will be observed as no production days, it added. The automobile industry has suffered a huge drop in sales leading to 3.5 lakh job losses since the start of this fiscal. In August, Maruti Suzuki reduced its production by 33.99 per cent The company reportedly produced a total of 1, 11,370 units in August as against 1,68,725 units in the same month in 2018. Of the total off-take, domestic sales fell nearly 36 per cent to 94,728 automobiles. Domestic passenger vehicle sales were down 36.1 per cent at 93,173 units from 1,45,895 during the corresponding month last year, Maruti Suzuki said in a statement. Passenger vehicle sales are one of the closely watched high-frequency indicators and its sales nosedived 30.98 per cent to 200,790 units in August, 2019 as compared to 290,931 units in the same month last year. Similarly, Mahindra and Mahindra's (M&M) local sales declined 26 per cent YoY. It sold 33,564 vehicles during the month against 45,373 units in year-ago month. "The auto industry continued to be subdued in August due to several external factors," Veejay Ram Nakra, Chief of Sales and Marketing, Automotive Division, M&M. Hyundai Motor India, sold 38,205 units, lower by 16.58 per cent from 45,801 units in August 2018. The sector has been going through a slowdown for the past few months due to several reasons including, high goods and services tax (GST) and liquidity crunch. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Chennai on Sunday the GST Council would take the call on reducing the tax on motor vehicles. "One of the suggestion was the reduction of GST for the automobile sector, that of course will have to go to the (GST) Council," she said. To help revive the sector, the Minister on August 23 had announced that the government departments would be allowed to buy new vehicles, automobiles purchased till March 31, 2020 could avail the benefit of additional depreciation of 15 per cent, with total depreciation up to 30 per cent, and BS-IV vehicles bought till March 31, 2020 would remain operational for their entire registration period. (With additional information from IANS)