While no introduction of additional taxes on diesel vehicles will see sales of diesel variant of Maruti Suzuki Swift and Mahindra SUVs continue being strong, the increase in excise and customs duty will surely not make the car buying lot happy. Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra should soon hike the prices of their vehicles by up to Rs 70,000.
Maruti Suzuki India Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek was said, “We are going to raise the prices of all our products and will pass on the entire additional excise duty. Currently we are working on the exact amount of the hike.”
Mahindra & Mahindra President (Automotive and Farm Equipment Sector) Pawan Goenka was quoted as saying “Given the current economic scenario and the revenue deficit of the country, the hike in excise duty was fully anticipated. Although the industry will not cheer about this, but we have to live with it. The input costs have also gone up in recent times. Considering this, we will raise the prices of our vehicles by 2-3 per cent, translating into an increase of Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000.” Tractors from Mahindra will too become dearer by up to Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000.