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Its that time of the year again when Car manufacturers offer huge discounts on cars. This might be an attempt to push up car sales during a period when automobile sales normally drop between 15% and 20% because of expectations of an excise duty cut. General Motors India has gone to the extent of offering a refund to consumers in the likelihood of an excise cut in the budget.
Another factor has been consistently high interest rates for the past couple of years on back of RBI’s efforts to suck out liquidity. This has forced car companies to resort to offering discounts to keep sales buoyant. Maruti, India’s biggest manufacturer has discount schemes running on most popular models like the M800, Esteem, Zen Estilo and WagonR.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers expects a reduction in excise duty from 24% to 16% in this budget and hopes that it will eventually make cars cheaper. So those of you who are postponing your car purchase until April may not be too excited about the current discounts on offer.
This is perhaps UPA’s last budget before the General Elections and experts expect this to be a populist one. However, nobody knows what the Finance Minister has up his sleeve or rather in the briefcase!