Car purchases by govt employees in top gear

High growth in sales to govt employees due to improved purchasing power after revised wages

India’s second biggest carmaker, Hyundai, was hoping to notch up a sales figure of 50,000 units to government employees during the 2016 calendar year. This would have translated into a sharp increase of 43 per cent from 2015. But thanks to a hike in wages and pensions of government employees, Hyundai surpassed its own estimates by selling 60,000 units to this growing segment of buyers.

Maruti Suzuki, which enjoys a share of about 47 per cent in the domestic market, has sold 211,000 vehicles to government employees in the first three quarters of FY17. This is not very different from