NEW DELHI: With excise duty concessions expiring last month car makers are now moving towards an excise paid regime making cars dearer, the companies would also resort to hikes to offset the increased input costs.
Honda Cars India on Monday announced hiking its price across different models by up to Rs 60, 000. Other car makers including Renault and GM have already hiked the price of their products to offset the rise in input cost.
Excise duty on small cars, scooters, motorcycles and commercial vehicles was reduced to 8 per cent from 12 per cent previously. For SUVs, it was cut to 24 per cent from 30 per cent; for mid-sized cars, to 20 per cent from 24 per cent and to 24 per cent for large cars, from 27 per cent.
The move follows the government not extending excise duty concessions given to the auto industry and consumer durables sectors after the expiry on December 31, 2014.
The government had extended the excise duty concessions by 6 months in June, continuing the previous UPA government’s decision to cut excise duty in the interim Budget in February 2014, as the auto sector was witnessing the worst down turn of the recent times.
With the hike in price Honda’s entry level car Brio will be dearer by up to Rs 18,000, Amaze would cost up to Rs 26,000 more, the price of its flagship Honda City would now cost up toRs 48,000 more depending on the model while its SUV CR-V will now cost up to Rs 60,000.
Maruti Suzuki India said it would hike prices of its models in the range of 2-4 per cent from this month, while Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra had also announced plans to increase prices in the range of 1-2 per cent citing higher input costs.
While German luxury car maker BMW also maintained that it would raise product prices in India by up to 5 per cent with effect from the first week of January.
General Motors India had also announced a price hike by up to Rsc20,000 from January in order to partially offset rising input costs.