KUALA LUMPUR: Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) sold 75,500 vehicles in the first four months of this year, a 17 per cent year-on-year increase compared with the same period of 2017, capturing an estimated total industry volume market share of 41.6 per cent year-to-date.

President and Chief Executive Officer Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh said Perodua's market share stood at 43 per cent in April, the highest in its 26-year history.

"Demand for the new Myvi model is strong, and we are working overtime to meet it. There is also a possibility for demand to spike before the Sales and Services Tax (SST) is implemented," said Aminar at the company's breaking fast event here yesterday.

He said from January-April 2018, bookings for Perodua vehicles increased by 14.2 per cent y-o-y to 113,900 units from 99,800 vehicles previously.

Production also increased to 72,000 vehicles, an increase of 13 per cent y-o-y.

Service intakes registered an increase of 3.2 per cent y-o-y, while parts, accessories and body paint revenue went up by 17 per cent y-o-y.

Going by the current momentum, Aminar said Perodua would meet its 2018 sales target of 209,000 units.

The car maker recently announced that from May 18-31, it would fully reimburse the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to purchasers of Perodua vehicles and parts at its 179 authorised sales outlets nationwide, as well as customers servicing their Perodua cars.

"Before we made that announcement, our business was a bit affected as many said they would wait for June 1 to buy or service their cars.

"There was a slight increase after the announcement, as we are giving the six per cent discount ahead of the zero-rated GST implementation on June 1," he said.

Moving forward, Aminar said Perodua would tweak its back-end system and adjust it to the pre-GST era to be ready for the SST, reportedly scheduled to be reintroduced later this year.

"Mathematically, it looks like the prices can go up, but I cannot comment on the pricing until we get the details from the Ministry of Finance (MOF)," he added.

The MOF recently said that the SST would be reintroduced this year and would be set at 10 per cent, the same rate before it was replaced by the GST in April 2015.