Diwali 2025: How much did GST cuts fuel record demand for cars, smartphones, appliances

White Goods (Representative Image)

Though the benefits of the GST reforms are yet to be calculated in financial terms and it is yet to be seen how much of the benefits have been transferred to the consumers, it has immensely benefited the shoppers of Diwali 2025. The biggest beneficiaries are those who have spent money on white goods like cars, refrigerators, washing machines and smartphones. The auto and electronics segments have registered the fastest sales just before Diwali. It can be gauged by the sales of Maruti Suzuki. India’s largest car maker sold about 325,000 vehicles between September 22 (when the Navratri festival started) and October 18 (Dhanteras), an increase of 50% over the same period last year. The company in the past month received 450,000 bookings, of which 94,000 units were for small cars.

Auto industry growth India

Confirming this, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) Partho Banerjee told the ET, “We are receiving about 14,000 bookings every day. While demand is strong across categories, it is more for vehicles in the 18% GST bracket than 40%, indicating positive consumer sentiments in the mainstream market.” Similarly, on the day of Dhanteras alone, Hyundai Motor India sold 14,000 units, 20% more than last year. 

Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors festive sales

Tata Motors is estimated to deliver more than 25,000 vehicles during the Dhanteras-Diwali period, 30% growth over the same period last year. Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, said, “After the tax cuts, vehicles have become more affordable.” He added, “Several cars have come within the budget of those customers who were earlier not thinking of buying a vehicle. Several other customers are opting for a higher variant at the same price (that a lower variant previously had).”

Smartphone sales festive season

According to Counterpoint Research, festive sales of smartphones has grown 16-18% by value and 9-10% by volume. It had initially forecast 8% value growth and a 4% volume expansion. Confirming this, Tarun Pathak, director of research at Counterpoint, said that there was a bit of slowdown after the first online sales around Navratri, but demand bounced back in the last five-six days, especially in offline retail. 

Other white goods like television sets, ACs, refrigerators and washing machines have registered many-fold increase in sales during the festive season, though there was no GST cut on most of them. Godrej Appliances confirmed that its festive sales grew by over 50% in value and 45% in volume. Similarly, Haier, sales increased more than 45%. For both companies, the sales growth this festive season was the fastest on record.