FADA asks SIAM to start reporting monthly sales data on basis of actual registrations

Automobile dealers' body FADA has asked its auto industry counterpart SIAM to start reporting monthly sales data on the basis of actual registrations based on road ministry's Vahan platform instead of wholesales.

In a letter addressed to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Rajan Wadhera, FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said reporting retail numbers is also a norm which is followed internationally and would help in the betterment of the Indian auto industry as well.

"Both dealers and component manufacturers also felt that it would have been easier to predict the ongoing slowdown in auto sales if retail numbers were reported, helping all in their inventory management and would have kept all better placed in facing these dynamic times," Kale wrote in the letter.

FADA has been advocating this from November 2018 and many of its members have also done the same with their respective original equipment manufacturer (OEM's) and have received a positive response of accepting it, given if it becomes an industry practise, he added.

"Hence, I request you to please use your good offices to impress upon all the members of SIAM as well to report retail sales which is now available in VAHAN, instead of factory despatches and graduate to market share calculation of the industry and of dealer partners by registration data instead of wholesale despatches," Kale noted.

As per the data released by SIAM earlier this week, vehicle sales across categories, including passenger vehicles (PVs) and two-wheelers and commercial vehicles (CVs) saw steepest fall on record by 23.55 per cent at 18,21,490 units in August as against 23,82,436 units in August 2018.

Similarly, domestic PV sales saw its worst-ever fall in two decades last month, slumping by 31.57 per cent to 1,96,524 units from 2,87,198 units in the year-ago period.

On the other hand, August retail sales data showed a somewhat better picture in terms of sales pointing to inventory correction taking place in the industry.

As per retail sales data also provided by SIAM, total automobile sales declined by 4.15 per cent to 16,00,376 units as compared with 16,69,751 units in August 2018.

Similarly, PV sales stood at 2,38,357 units last month as compared with 2,56,662 units in the same month of last year, a decline of 7.13 per cent.