Maruti Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava on Monday, 31 August credited GST 2.0 reforms with giving the Indian economy the resilience to sustain growth despite the adverse fallout of the West Asia crisis. Speaking at the company's annual general meeting in New Delhi, Bhargava said the reforms had delivered 'a new impetus not only to the automobile industry but to several sectors of the economy.'

GST 2.0 as an Economic Buffer

Bhargava argued that without the GST reforms, India's economic performance during the turbulent months of the West Asia conflict would have been materially weaker. He noted that GST collections have remained at record highs even as global headwinds intensified. 'I do believe that without GST reforms, we may not have done so well in the difficult months that have elapsed,' he said.

He specifically credited the GST rate cuts announced in September last year with accelerating demand in the small car segment, and called the broader reform package a 'historical reform.' Bhargava urged both state governments and the Centre to push reform faster, ease the business environment, and deploy more technology — which he said demonstrably reduces corruption and delays.

India's Car Market: A 6.3 Million Unit Horizon

Maruti Suzuki projects that India's passenger car industry will grow to between 6.1 million and 6.3 million units by 2031, with the small car segment expanding significantly faster than it did in the preceding five years. The company is scaling capacity to capture that growth: its installed capacity is expected to reach 2.9 million units by end of FY2026-27 and 3.65 million units by end of FY2030-31.

Capex Surge: ₹77,500 Crore Over Five Years

Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi told shareholders that Maruti Suzuki has planned a 40 per cent jump in capital expenditure in FY2026-27 alone — rising from approximately ₹10,000 crore last year to ₹14,000 crore this year. Cumulatively, the company has committed ₹77,500 crore in capex between FY2026-27 and FY2030-31.

Two production lines at the Kharkhoda plant in Haryana have already been commissioned, with a third under construction. A fourth line of 2.5 lakh units capacity was commissioned at Hansalpur in Gujarat, taking total capacity there to 1 million units — which Bhargava described as Suzuki's largest plant anywhere in the world.

Sanand Expansion and the Road Ahead

Work has also commenced at a new facility in Sanand, Gujarat, with a planned total capacity of 1 million units and a proposed investment of approximately ₹35,000 crore. Bhargava attributed the scale of the expansion directly to India's growth potential, saying: 'We are doing all this expansion because our economy has a huge potential for growth.'

He also called for continued reform momentum, arguing that faster wealth creation would accelerate government revenue growth and produce more equitable outcomes across the country. With the Sanand site now under development and the Kharkhoda third line progressing, Maruti Suzuki's next capacity milestones will be closely watched as a barometer of domestic demand confidence.