Over 3,000 temporary jobs already cut: Maruti Suzuki

The slump in the automobile industry has started deepening its impact on the Indian economy as India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has announced 3000 temporary jobs have already been cut due to lack of demand

New Delhi: It is a piece of bad news. Economy is in doldrums and it has started showing impact. Over 3,000 temporary employees have lost jobs with the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) due to the ongoing slowdown in the automobile industry, Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava has said. "Contracts of the temporary workers were not renewed due to the slowdown while asserting that permanent workers have not been impacted," he said.

"This is a part of the business when demand soars, more contract workers are hired and reduced in case of low demand," Bhargava said while speaking to the media.

Bhargava was responding to a query on whether the current slump and production cuts have led to job cuts in Maruti. "Around 3,000 temporary workers have lost jobs with Maruti Suzuki," he added.

"The impact is much higher"

Reiterating that automobile is the sector that creates multiple jobs in the economy – from sales, service, insurance, licensing, financing, accessories, drivers, petrol pumps, transportation – he cautioned, "fewer automobiles (sales) will impact jobs on a larger scale."

These are not even visualised. The impact is much higher, he added.

"Lower interest rate will revive sales"

When asked if the industry has hit the rock bottom in terms of sales in July, he said revival in the sense of positive growth will start from the third or fourth quarter of this fiscal, partly because of the lower base effect.

"Hopeful to see strong revival in FY 2021. By then transition to BS-VI will be over," he added.

Commenting on expectations from the upcoming festival season, he said due to the good monsoon, rural sales may pick up. "If the government makes an announcement and takes positive actions it should help improve the situation," he said, however, it was up to the government to decide on GST rate cut and take the corrective action.

"Personally we would like to see GST benefits linked to greener/cleaner cars…The government gave tax cut on EVs but hybrid should be given duty cut. There should be tax cut on CNG vehicles," he said.