The country’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, with a strong product portfolio comprising of bestselling models such as Alto, Swift, Ritz and Dzire has revealed that the high input cost pressure has compelled the company to shoot up the prices of its flagship entry level sedan Swift Dzire. The price hike pertains only to diesel variants of the sedan and will be higher by up to Rs. 12000 from the current month.
A senior executive representing Maruti Suzuki India confirmed the news saying that the company is facing the rising input price constraints and in a bid to offset the constraints, the company had no resort but to step up the prices of the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire diesel variants. The car maker has announced increase in prices of diesel variants ranging from Rs. 8000 to Rs. 12000.
The company had increased the prices of its cars in the month of January this year to the tune of around 3 percent due to rise in input costs. But the entry level sedan, Dzire was exempted from this hike. Further, the release of the Union Budget for 2012-13 in the month of March pronounced surge in prices of all of its range to the tune of Rs. 17000 owing to the excise duty hike.
At present, the new Dzire launched in February this year is tagged between Rs. 4.79 lakhs and Rs. 6.54 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi) for petrol variants and between Rs. 5.80 lakhs to Rs. 7.09 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the diesel variants. This new version is a shorter rendition of the old Dzire and is imposed with the 10 percent excise duty rates charged generally for cars shorter than 4 metres.
