SME Times News Bureau | 04 Sep, 2019
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers President
Rajan Wadhera warned that the Indian automobile industry may face further difficulties
in coming days with its transition from BS-IV emission norms to BS-VI.
Speaking at the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations' Auto Retail
Conclave 2019, he noted that even as the industry faces the sales slowdown,
OEMs have been investing Rs 1,000 crore, on an average, to upgrade their
offerings.
The Industry expects a further sales slowdown once the BS-VI norms are
implemented. These norms are expected to ramp up prices and further dent
consumer sentiments.
The sector has been going through a slowdown due to several reasons including
the high goods and services tax (GST) and liquidity crunch.
Besides, Wadhera pointed out that an up-tick in government spending will lead
to further demand generation in the economy.
Just a few days back SIAM's President said that the market has still not
responded to the various measures initiated by the government to reverse the
slowdown that has dented the industry.
To help revive the sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced
several sops.
These include allowing government departments to buy new vehicles, automobiles
purchased till March 31, 2020 to avail the benefit of additional depreciation
of 15 per cent, with total depreciation up to 30 per cent, and BS-IV vehicles
bought till March 31, 2020 would remain operational for their entire
registration period.
On Sunday, almost all major automobile makers in the country reported a huge
decline in domestic sales across segments like passenger, commercial and two
and three-wheeler vehicles.
Reacting to the dismal sales numbers of various companies for August, Wadhera
had said the series of announcements on credit availability and reducing the
cost of credit that were made do not seem to have percolated down to the NBFCs
which support the bulk of finance for the automotive industry.