Maruti Suzuki hike prices following the tax announcement of Budget 2016

Maruti Suzuki has said that following the budget announcement, it has decided to increase the prices of its models by Rs. 34,494. The decision has been taken after Shri Arun Jaitley announced an infra cess on the vehicles ranging from 1% to 4%. The hikes thus range from Rs. 1,441 to 34,494.

"Following the infrastructure cess on automobiles in the Union Budget 2016-17... prices of its models would go up in the range of Rs 1,441 to Rs 34,494 across its models," said Maruti Suzuki India.

Though, there is a relief for those who plan to opt for hybrid vehicles. The government announced the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) scheme in last year's budget and Ciaz SHVS and Ertiga SHVS

(Maruti's hybrid offerings) benefitted from the same. "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 in a statement.

An important thing to note is that though the government did not enhance the subsidies on electric vehicles this time, it did introduce infra cess on petrol/diesel vehicles. This will result in increase in prices of the same while electric/ hybrid vehicles will not observe this hike. Therefore, indirectly, this infra cess will push the carmakers towards green technology.

Some other automakers like Tata Motors, have already carry forwarded the impact on the customers. Honda and Hyundai have too expressed their intent to do the same as soon as possible.

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