Maruti Suzuki (MSIL), India's largest car maker, registered a marginal (0.4%) rise in domestic sales in February at 59,311 units when compared with 59,095 units sold in February 2007.The company said the marginal increase is due to customers postponing their purchase decision in anticipation of the excise duty cut in the budget.Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday proposed to bring down excise duty on small cars to 12% from 16%. Maruti has decided to pass on the complete benefit of the excise cut to customers, and has cut prices of its cars in the range of Rs 6,500 to Rs 18,030.Sales in the A2 segment, including cars like Swift and Alto, increased 2.7% to 44,059 units. The company sold 1,958 units in the A3 segement including SX4 and Esteem - an increase of 8.9%. Exports increased 15.5% to 4,511 units in February.General Motors India today reported a 80% increase in sales at 5,563 units in February when compared with 3,087 units sold in February 2007.The company sold 1,681 units of Tavera, 1,102 units of Aveo, 360 units of Optra, 2,229 units of Spark and 191 units of Captiva.P Balendran, vice president, GM India, said: "We are very pleased to see such a robust growth for all our carlines under the Chevrolet brand. With the consistent surge in monthly sales, our key focus remains to address the changing customer needs while providing them world-class products and best-in-class service."Bajaj Auto and Hero Honda have witnessed a decline in sales in February on the back of falling demand for entry-level models and restricted availability of finance.Bajaj Auto reported an 8% decline in motorcycle sales at 158,662 units for February as against 171, 780 units sold in February 2007. A release from the company said: "A degrowth of about 13% in the 100cc segment offset stable sales in the 125cc + segment resulting in an overall degrowth of 10% for the motorcycle industry."Hero Honda had its biggest fall (5%) in monthly sales in this financial year at 265,431 units from 280,515 units in February 2007. The company has blamed lack of finance as the reason for the decline in sales.
