Passenger car market leader MUL started the fiscal with a negative 89.2 per cent growth by exporting just 105 units in April compared to 979 units in the same month last year. Exports of Tata Engineering's utility vehicles dipped by 19.4 per cent to 300 units in April this year from 423 units in the same month a year ago. Indian arm of Korean auto major Daewoo Motors also started exporting its small car Matiz and sold 300 units in the global market during the first month of the fiscal 2000-01.
Most dealers are hesitant to put through deals.
This follows the reported statement made by the Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Mr. Shanta Kumar, to a wire agency late last week that the Government was again reviewing the edible oils duty structure. The report has apparently helped add further grist to the already over-active rumour mill. Not all have taken kindly to the duty-related statements the honourable Minister has by now got accustomed to making. Reports from major trading centres of the country suggest that dealers have taken the report of anticipated duty-hike with varying degrees of seriousness. Many are willing not to sell but wait for the duty hike so that prices would actually rise leading to windfall gains.