Vehicle sales in January should put smiles on many faces. Overall retail sales, according to data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations on Tuesday, grew about 18% from a year earlier to 2.72 million.
Not only is the number impressive, the expansion was broad-based across segments. Passenger vehicle sales grew 7.2% and commercial vehicles grew 15.1%, while tractor and three-wheeler sales clocked similarly high growth rates.
January’s show-stealer is a 21% rise in two-wheeler sales, an acceleration from December, when the GST reset began to take effect after a disappointing November. A bulk of the two-wheeler offtake last month was in rural areas.
It can be counted as good news that two-wheeler unit sales outpaced passenger vehicles, just as it’s a relief that GST rate cuts have helped revive demand for small cars, as other reports indicate.
Signs of a “K-shaped” recovery from the pandemic, with premium vehicles doing far better than modestly priced ones, finally seem to be fading in such well-tracked markets. The hope now is that the fiscal boost imparted by GST relief endures. The Indian economy needs robust sales growth across categories.