Bajaj Auto Q1 net profit down 19% to Rs 837 crore

Bajaj Auto reported 19.51 percent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 836.79 crore for the June quarter of current fiscal, on account of lower sales on Thursday.

It had posted net profit of Rs 1,039.70 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal. Bajaj Auto said in a BSE filing that its total income from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 6,177.66 crore as against Rs 6,355.84 crore in the April-June quarter of 2016-17.

The domestic industry, it said, was impacted during the June quarter of 2017-18 due to changeover from BS-III to BS-IV vehicles and transition to the new Goods and Services Tax. Total vehicles sales during the quarter declined 10.68 percent to 8,88,434 units as against 9,94,733 units in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The company said its total exports, however, went up by 10.48 percent to 4,09,525 units as against 3,70,649 units in the same quarter last fiscal.

With regard to GST, Bajaj Auto said: "For dealers holding stocks as on June 30, estimated loss per motorcycle was around Rs 1,400 as CST, auto cess, entry tax in certain states and LBT would not be eligible for set-off under rules for transition to GST."

The company said it provided for Rs 32 crore towards compensation to the dealers for transition to GST. Competition continued to build stocks at the dealerships and hence in June, performance measured on wholesale numbers was negative for the company and reflected a lower market share, it added.

Shares of Bajaj Auto were trading 0.38 percent down at Rs 2,814.15 on BSE, Thursday afternoon.

Bajaj Auto Limited