According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), India’s passenger vehicle and car sales has suffered a steep fall in the month of August. This is the 10th consecutive month where the sales have continued to decline and is considered the worst ever slump for the automobile industry since 1997-98. The auto sector accounts for nearly half of the country’s manufacturing output and employs over 3.5 crore people directly and indirectly. 

Read: Maruti Suzuki Annouces A Temporary Halt In Operations Next Week

Huge slump compared to August 2018 

The ongoing slowdown in the auto industry is marked by the recently released SIAM data which has observed that the domestic passenger vehicle sales fell 31.57% in comparison to the same month last year, falling from 2,87,198 units to 1,96,524 units. Motorcycle sales declined from 12,07,005 units to 9,37,486 units, a decline of nearly 22.33%. Similarly, the total two-wheeler sales fell to 15,14,196 units from 19,47,304 units observed in August last year. While the medium and heavy commercial vehicles suffered a slump of 54.3% clocking sales at just 15,573 units, the light commercial vehicles were down to 36,324 units registering a loss of 28.2%. Overall, the vehicle sales across all categories witnessed a decline of 23.55%, falling from 23,82,436 units in August 2018 to 18,21,490 units.  

Read: Nirmala Sitharaman Announces 6 Measures For Automobile Sector's Issues

Market leaders announce 'no production days' 

Maruti Suzuki has recently announced that two days would be declared as ‘no production days’ due to the pile-up of inventory. On Monday, Ashok Leyland too joined the chorus by writing to the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. It has declared the number of non-working days at 5 of its manufacturing locations for September 2019. For instance, the plants at Pantnagar and Ennore would remain shut for 18 and 16 days respectively.  

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Auto sector witnessing slowdown

The automobile sector in India is undergoing a slowdown in sales which is also leading to job losses. The government has tried to assuage the industry by rolling out friendly measures such as lifting the ban on the purchase of new vehicles by the government departments, increasing the functional period of BS-IV vehicles, and so forth. Last week, the Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari promised to convey the need to cut taxes on petrol and diesel to the Finance Ministry. Furthermore, the representatives of the automobile industry have urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to lower the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 28% to 18%. It is speculated that the GST Council meeting on September 20 might take a call on the demand. 

(With ANI inputs)

Read: Auto Sector Slowdown: Industry Giants Report Sharp Drop In Sales