Maruti Suzuki said it has increased its car prices slightly to pass on a new ‘infrastructure cess’ imposed by the central government as part of its Budget 2016-2017 exercise.
Interestingly, the price increase is around half of what was expected, going by the percentage cess imposed.
For example, on small cars, the infrastructure cess is 1%, and this was expected to increase the price of Alto by about 3500.
However, Maruti said it would increase the price of its cheapest car — Alto — by Rs 1,441, which comes to only about 0.5%.
Similarly, the highest increase will be Rs 34,494. It is not clear which model this price increase will apply to.
For example, the S-Cross — the most expensive India-made car for the brand, costs only around 12-13 lakhs, and a 1% cess should add only around Rs 12,000-13,000 to its tag.
“As Smart Hybrid models (Ciaz SHVS and Ertiga SHVS) are exempt from the Infrastructure Cess, there is no change in the prices of these models,” the company said.