Vehicle registrations dip 15% in Maharashtra in 2019, impact tax collection

In a sign of the slowdown in the auto-industry, registrations of new vehicles dipped by 15 per cent in Maharashtra in 2019 and led to low revenue collection, data provided by the state Road Transport Department showed.

Maharashtra is one of the largest auto markets in the country.

The department had set itself a low revenue target for financial year 2019-20, but as of November, even that target appears to be difficult to achieve.

It can be noted that since FY15, the department, one of the top revenue-mopping agencies for the state, has delivered revenues higher than the target.

For 2019-20, the department aimed to collect Rs 8,249 crore in taxes and other levies from vehicle registrations, against Rs 8,672 crore in 2018-19.

As of November 2019, it had collected only Rs 5,466 crore.

As per the data, there was a 15 per cent decline in new vehicle registrations, which stood at 2.3 million in calendar year 2019 against 2.71 million in 2018.

"Nearly 200,000 fewer vehicles were registered in the state in April-November period. This will impact the department's revenue collections," state transport commissioner Shekhar Channe told PTI earlier this week.

But the department is hopeful of achieving the target by the end of the fiscal year, he added.

Only 1.69 million new two-wheelers were registered in the state in 2019, against 1.97 million previous year.

Four-wheeler sales slid to 366,000 in 2019 from 397,000 in 2018, while three-wheeler registrations too dipped at 95,808 against 172,000 in 2018.

Registrations of small goods carriers declined to 76,182 from 80,063 in 2018, it revealed.

According to the data, there are 353 million registered vehicles in the state, which has a population of over 110 million.

Across the country, all sectors of the auto industry were battered by the economic slow down in 2019. The industry is expected to close 2019-20 with a decline of 13-17 per cent in wholesale dispatches.

Meanwhile, the latest road accident statistics for Maharashtra indicated a dip in number of accidents by 7.4 per cent.

The number of fatalities dropped by 5.2 percent and number of injured by 8 per cent, as of November 2019.