mumbai automotive manufactures dispatched 133 per cent more vehicles to dealerships in july from a year earlier aided by replenishment of stock post implementation of gst numbers are likely to look up this month as well for most segments of the industry with companies gearing up for the upcoming festive season and the fundamentals looking favourable with good monsoon low inflation attractive interest rates and benign fuel prices but the recent decision to increase the cess on bigger cars and utility vehicles may slow down the growth momentum in the passenger vehicle market where the situation doesnt look as rosy as the july wholesale data suggest industry executives said in july total automotive sales including of cars suvs trucks and twowheelers totalled 207 million units data from the society of indian automobile manufacturers showed on friday in the passenger vehicle segment sales rose more than 15 per cent to 298 lakh units the highest ever for a month the motorcycle market grew nearly 14 per cent with good rains this year boosting demand in rural india even in commercial vehicles sales expanded in double digits led by higher dispatches of light commercial vehicles these are all wholesale numbers as the companies dont report retail sales the industry association said the high numbers for july were expected with lower manufacturing and dispatches in june vishnu mathur the siam directorgeneral said these numbers alone may not reflect the real picture as the industry resorted to destocking and stocking in june and july respectively the industry is in a fix now due to the move to increase the cess on vehicles that are longer than four metres the gst council has approved a proposal to increase the cess to 25 per cent from the 15 per cent currently levied on passenger vehicles on top of gst at 28 per cent the decision though has yet to be implemented mathur said the offtake in passenger vehicles is decent at present in part due to prebuying before the increased cess takes effect the real demand picture will be seen only after september he addedthe industry was hoping sales to grow at double digits this year after the gst rates announced earlier was seen as beneficial for automakers and led to significant fall in prices but they dont expect that to happen now we are sticking to our forecasts for passenger vehicles at 79 per cent with no clear sign on which way the demand will move the good monsoon is likely to drive the twowheeler market to double digit and with higher infrastructure spend we expect the commercial vehicle demand to revive in the second half of fy18 mathur said by ketan thakkar et bureau published on aug 12 2017 at 0842 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our