City witnessed mad rush to buy cars before they become costlier due to increased levies expected in the Union Budget
Bangaloreu00a0witnessed mad rush to buy cars before they become costlier due to increased levies expected in the Union Budget
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's budget brought smiles to car dealers' lips yesterday. A day before the budget was to be presented, Bangaloreans rushed in numbers to buy cars before expected increased levies make them dearer.
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Car crazy: A family test drives a car at a city showroom yesterday. Pic/Vinod Kumar T |
A new high "The dealers are riding high on the surging sales," said N Nityanand, a chartered accountant and expert in indirect taxes.
"Now the consumers want to buy before the cars becoming dearer and this has pushed the sales upwards.
Naturally, the dealers are happy," Nityanand added. In a bid to bridge the widening fiscal deficit, Mukherjee is expected to announce an increase in excise duty, which stands atu00a0 eight per cent now, of two to four per cent.
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| Lucky January |
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While 59, 060 Maruti cars were sold in January last year, across the country, 70,029 were sold in the same month this year.
Hyundai's January sales for this year were 29,601 and the number was 21,015 in the month last year.u00a0 The sales of Toyota Kirloskar almost doubled in January this year compared to the sales in the corresponding month last year. This year, they managed to sell 947 cars in January. TATA sold 15,406 cars in January last year, while they managed to sell 22,707 cars in the same month this year. |
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State taxes too The hike will result in increase in prices of manufactured goods including cars. Small cars like Maruti Swift, Hyundai i20, and TATA Vista are expected to become dearer by around Rs 20,000 if the finance minister hikes the excise duty by 2 percent.
Meanwhile, the state government is also considering increasing levies.
VAT and road tax are expected to travel northwards when Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who also holds the finance portfolio, presents his fifth budget on March 5.
"Sales peaked on Thursday," said P K Bittu Nair, general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki.
"Normally, car sales drop before a budget. However, with buyers expecting car prices to rise post the budget, the demand has gone up this time. We usually sell 15 cars a day at our Lavel Road branch. Yesterday, we sold 36," said Nair.
Big amount"We are a middle-class family. We bought a Maruti Alto today because we heard that prices are likely to increase soon," said Anblagan, a BSNL employee. I decided to buy the the Alto today because a saving of Rs 20,000 is a big thing for us.
150
Number of cars sold in Bangalore on an average day
400
Number of cars sold in the city yesterday
