NEW DELHI: There has been a 5% decline in the registration of vehicles during April-July period during this year as compared to last year. But in sharp contrast the data released by automobile lobby group, SIAM, shows a nearly 14% decline in wholesale domestic sales of vehicles. The big difference has raised questions whether dealers were quickly clearing their inventories while cutting down on intake of fresh stock.

According to data released by SIAM, the total domestic sales of vehicles during April-July this year was nearly 79.11 lakh as compared to 91.88 lakh in 2018. But the registration of vehicles across all states barring Telangana , Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh captured by government’s online Vahan platform during this April-July period was about 70.3 lakh against last year’s 73.8 lakh. Vahan data primarily captures the registration of all new vehicles.

A section in the government feels though there is a slow down in the automobile sector , it may be temporary and not as big as the industry is reporting, maybe hoping for some relief from the Centre. They said one of the reasons could be buyers delaying their purchase to April 2020 when vehicles complying with BS-VI emission norms will be available. The Supreme Court has upheld that no new vehicle without BS-VI compliance will be manufactured or registered from April 1.

But SIAM rejected this reason behind steep decline in sale of new vehicles. “Our sale data cannot be compared with the registration data. While overall domestic sale by vehicle manufacturers is like input, the registration is output. Why will people defer buying vehicles, which will be more expensive when BS-VI norm kicks in? We never saw this when we shifted from BS-I to BS-II, then BS-II to BS-III and from BS-III to BS-IV,” said SIAM director general Vishnu Mathur.

The comparison of sale and registration of passenger cars also throws up interesting indicators. While the total domestic sales of passenger cars during April-June period, according to SIAM, is 26.4% less than last year, the registration data show there was 11% decline this year.

