Budget Impact: Mahindra, Mercedes and Tata announce price hike

More and more manufacturers have begun to announce price hike after additional infrastructure cess was levied on cars.

More and more manufacturers have begun to announce price hike after additional infrastructure cess was levied on cars. Mahindra, Mercedes and Tata are the latest ones to join the brigade.

Mahindra and Mahindra will increase prices from April 1 in the range of Rs 5,500 to Rs 47,000.

“Though the 1-4 percent duty hikes are already effective, we have decided to pass on the price increases only from April 1. Prospective customers can still avail of our various passenger cars at the pre-Budget prices all through March.

“In absolute terms, prices will go up by Rs 5,500 to Rs 47,000, depending on the model and prevailing prices,” Mahindra Chief Executive for passenger car business, Praveen Shah told PTI. Their newly launched KUV100 will however, see price hike with immediate effect.

“The introduction of additional duties and taxes in this year’s Union Budget has adversely affected our pricing. On top, the steady rise of input costs against the backdrop of a weakening Indian currency has further eroded our bottom-line. We were hence left with no option but to make some necessary price adjustments to our product range”, said Roland Folger, CEO, Mercedes-Benz India as the company said it will increase prices by 3-5 percent across the entire range. The price hike translates anywhere from INR 80,000 to INR 5,00,000.

Tata Motors was the first manufacturer to announce the price hike. Confirming the news, a Tata Motors spokesperson said to a website, “In line with the cess levied from the Budget announcement, we are increasing the prices of our passenger vehicles with immediate effect.” The Indian manufacturer’s portfolio in India ranges between Rs 2.04 lakh and Rs 15.79 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi); starting from the entry-level small car Nano, going up to the premium crossover Aria.

The government has decided to impose 2.5 percent cess on diesel vehicles of length not exceeding 4 metre and engine capacity not exceeding 1,500 cc, while a cess of 4 per cent was imposed on higher engine capacity SUVs and bigger sedans. These are over an above a cess of 1 percent on petrol/ LPG/CNG driven vehicles of length not exceeding 4 meter and engine capacity not exceeding 1,200 cc.