New Delhi: The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), an industry body for automobile sector, on Friday nearly halved its growth forecast for passenger vehicle sales for 2016-17 to 6-8 percent, as it expects demand to weaken due to new measures to curb pollution and increase in taxes.
This is for the second time in two months that SIAM revised downwards its growth forecast for passenger vehicle. The auto body in March had revised the growth forecast of passenger vehicles for 2016-17 to 11 per cent from 12 per cent after the imposition of infrastructure cess ranging between 1-4 per cent in the Budget.
“The industry is not confident of growing at 11 per cent. What is happening in the last few months does not promote or excite the industry,” said SIAM deputy director General Sugato Sen. Mr Sen said that a consensus of analyst estimates showing growth was likely to be between 6-8 per cent now looked right. “Parent companies of global car makers are not very optimistic. They are worried about the policies,” he said.
The Supreme Court had imposed ban on sale of large diesel cars in New Delhi, which was initially until March 31 but has now been extended. Centre also in February imposed a sales levy of up to 4 percent on new passenger vehicles depending on fuel type, to help fight air pollution and congestion.
