The Japanese auto giant, Toyota Motors Corp, has decided to hike the on-road prices of its models – Corolla Altis and Innova by Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000 next month. The manual version of Toyota Corolla is currently available at retail price of about Rs. 12 lakh. The automatic version is available for about Rs. 14 lakh. The Innova is available in a price range of Rs. 8.5 lakh to Rs. 12 lakh. The new prices translate into an increase of about 3 percent.
According to TKM Deputy Managing Director, Sandeep Singh, the import costs have gone up which has made the price increase imperative. Both the models have more than 40 percent import content in them which has made them costlier.
"We had factored in costs and selling prices at a conversion of Rs 42 to a dollar. Today, the scenario has changed completely and we just cannot afford imports at Rs 50 (to a dollar)," said Singh. "Despite the recent reduction in Cenvat (central value-added tax), where Toyota had reduced prices, passing on the excise duty benefits of 4 percent reduction entirely to customers, the current increase is inevitable," he added.
