The excise duty hike dragged domestic auto sales during April even though the country\’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), driven by spurt in sales of Ertiga and DZire, posted a growth of 4% across segments at 90,255 units compared to 87,144 units in April last year. However, most automakers, including Tata Motors, witnessed a decline in the sales of the passenger cars.

?We continue to maintain a tough outlook for at least the first six months of the year and this could possibly ease once the interest rates come down, maybe in the second half of the fiscal,? Vishnu Mathur of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) explained, reiterating the auto industry\’s outlook post the two percentage point hike in the Budget.

While the country\’s second largest automaker, Hyundai, will release its figures on Wednesday, Tata Motors witnessed a decline of 3% in its passenger vehicles segment as sales during April were 22,658 units compared to 23,387 units last April.

Analysts said that April traditionally sees lower sales, being the first month of the financial year since people hurry purchases in March to beat any Budget blues, while corporate purchases are on a freeze in the first month of the financial year.

However, riding on the back of the customer preference for diesel vehicles, utility major Mahindra & Mahindra posted a robust sales of 33% for its passenger vehicles, including Scorpio, XUV500, Xylo, Bolero and Verito, which sold 20,558 units last month against 15,459 units in April last year.

General Motors India said its April sales this year were not on expected lines as sales declined 20.34 % at 8,005 units compared with 10,050 units it sold in last April.

And driven by the success of its Brio, on top of the low base effect, Honda Siel Cars India registered a growth of 252% in April selling 7,075 units against 2,012 units last year.

In the commercial vehicles segment, Tata Motors recorded a 6% decline in domestic sales in April to 34,647 units, compared to 36,738 units in the same month a year ago.

Light commercial vehicle sales last month stood at 24,818 units, up 9%, while medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales stood at 9,829 units ?down 29.5 % compared to April 2011.

Meanwhile, the excise hike seemed to have shifted demand in favour of the two-wheeler segment, which experienced an overall healthy growth as the country\’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp reported the highest-ever monthly 6.66% increase in its sales for April at 5,51,557 units.

The company had sold 5,17,099 units during the same month last year, Hero MotoCorp said in a statement. Chennai-based TVS Motor recorded a 4% growth last month at 171,551 units, against 164,183 units in April, 2011.

Its scooter sales stood at 35,833 units, up 2%, against 35,074 units in the same month last year and motorcycle sales accounted for 67,966 units against 69,573 units in April 2011. And finally, Yamaha Motor reported a 4.4% hike in domestic sales at 26,944 units, as against 25,817 units in the same month last year.