new delhi to indias automakers the single producer tax appears to have given mixed signals ahead of its introduction the goods and services tax gst had triggered what is called prebuying in june after its midnight rollout on july 1 retail sales seem to have skidded somewhat despite falling prices retail offtake has declined noticeably in july senior industry executives told et deliveries this month fell to a record low ranging anywhere between 30 per cent and 50 per cent depending on the manufacturer and the state of sale wholesale volumes however have grown strongly as most dealerships had liquidated stock before the introduction of the single producer levy retail sales have dropped this month as there was an advancement in purchases driven by market offers announced in june wholesale dispatches last month on the other hand were postponed to prevent inventory devaluation to the extent of around 5 per cent in july the focus is more on wholesale as stocks were low across dealerships said rs kalsi executive director sales marketing at maruti suzuki india automakers had announced hefty discounts last month to liquidate pregst stocks the government had said it would not provide input tax credit for levies such as central sales tax infra cess and national calamity contingent duty on such inventory the loss on noncredit of tax cst nccd infra cess amounts to anywhere between 3 per cent and 7 per cent of the cost of a vehicle according to experts all carmakers subsequently revised vehicle prices downward from july after gst the decline was 23 per cent on an average in case of smaller cars and up to 10 per cent in case of bigger luxury vehicles interestingly the price cuts did not spur purchases also read turning around tata motors domestic business need of the hour n chandrasekaran roland folger managing director at mercedes benz india explained the hiccups are not driven by our side of the business we are very clear with our pricing we have announced it appropriately but what we see at the moment is that the business of our customers is affected everybody is sorting themselves out they want to gain a better understanding of what gst will mean for their individual businesses once they have a feeling of that we will see some increase in business as well rakesh srivastava director sales and marketing hyundai motor india said that gst has disrupted sales especially purchase decisions of small businessmen and traders this segment is estimated to contribute 2530 per cent of sales in the domestic industry to be sure most experts consider the decline a temporary problem kalsi said retail demand in august should be better there are a lot of positives monsoons have been good gst has led to a reduction in prices we are optimistic the momentum will pickup over the next two quarters maruti suzuki is confident of meeting its target of doubledigit growth in the current fiscal year by sharmistha mukherjee et bureau