Maruti Suzuki has announced that the passenger vehicle operations of two of its plants will temporarily cease working next week. The announcement was made in a press release signed by the Vice President and Company Secretary Sanjeev Grover. The two plants in question - Gurugram Plant and Manesar Plant in Haryana - will cease operations on September 7 and 9. The announcement also said that both days will be observed as 'no production days'. 

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Hit by an economic slowdown

Maruti Suzuki has been the caught in the middle of the economic slowdown in the country, with the carmaker recently announcing that it had cut its production by 1/3rd in the month of August, it's seventh straight month of cutting down production. Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, also announced a decline a sales on Sunday, for the month of August. The firm reported sales of 1,06,413 units in August 2019, while it sold 1,58,189 units in August 2018  — a 32.7% decrease in sales. In the period between April and August, the firm sold 6,18,217 units in 2019 and 8,13,038 units in 2018, thus registering a 24% fall in the sales.

The firm has also reported a fall in the total exports, with 9,352 units being sold in 2019 and 10,489 units being sold in 2018, a 10.8% fall. 

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Over the last few weeks, several automakers have been reporting slower growth and sales. Data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed that the sale of passenger car vehicles to car dealers has fallen to 30.9%, to 2,00,790. The data suggests that the performance of the auto sector has been worse since December 2000. SIAM has also stated that domestic car sales were at 1,22,956 units in July 2019 in comparison to 1,91,979 units in July 2018.

Motorcycle sales in July were reported to be 9,33,996 units as against 11,51,324 units in 2018. 

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Government's efforts to tackle the slowdown

In order to solve the problems of the auto sector and in a bid to push the growth, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced multiple measures last week. She announced the following: 

• All BS-IV vehicles purchased up to March 2020 will remain operational for their entire period of registration 
• An additional 15 percent depreciation will be provided on vehicles acquired from now till March 2020, taking the total depreciation to 30 percent. 
• The increase in the one-time vehicle registration fee, which the government had earlier mooted, will be deferred until June 2020. 

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