Passenger vehicle sales zoom, car sales up 12% in August

New Delhi: Passenger vehicles sale, particularly the car sales, remained robust in August with car sales registering a 11.8% growth at 1,98,811 units as compared to 1,77,829 units sold in the same month last year. Total passenger vehicle sales rose 13.76% at 2,94,335 units sold in August 2017 versus 2,58,737 units in the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). The rise in sales comes at the back of a 15% growth in car sales in July, which was mainly due to a major growth in utility vehicle sales. It was the utility vehicles (UV) sales which have powered the growth in August like a month earlier. UV sales grew by 19.62% as it sold 78,664 units in August 2017 in comparison to 65,760 units in the same month last year. Meanwhile, the SIAM has expressed relief that a GST cess of 25% has not been imposed across the board on all larger cars as was the apprehension. With the new GST cess, the taxation on mid-sized passenger cars have been almost restored to the pre-GST levels, while taxes on luxury cars and SUVs have been slightly moderated as compared to the pre-GST rates. TNS