Maruti worries over increasing road tax

Maruti Suzuki India, the undisputed leader of the Indian auto mobile market expressed that the cars sales will be affected with the increase in road and registration taxes which was declared by various states in India. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and New Delhi have already increased the road tax.

Shashank Srivastava, the Chief General Manager at Maruti Suzuki India expressed his thoughts when questioned whether the increase in road tax will affect the sales or not. He said that it will definitely affect the sales negatively, though, he did not comment on the damage as nothing can be said on it.

Mr Srivastava further said that road tax is a major factor which is considered while purchasing a car. He made a point when he continued that the small car market holds 75 per cent of the Indian auto market share. There are various factors which affect growth and demand for the cars, these are fuel prices and increasing interest cost.

Last month, states like Chandigarh, Haryana raised the road tax, now Punjab is all set to revise the tax on the cars.

Earlier the amount of the road tax levied on cars was just Rs 2500 , now with new tax parameters Chandigarh is charging 2 percent tax on cars costing Rs 6 lakh  and 3 per cent tax on cars costing from Rs 6 to Rs 20 lakh and 4 per cent tax is levied on cars costing above 20 lakhs.

In Haryana, 2 per cent tax is levied on cars that come with a price tag of up to Rs 5 lakh, 4 per cent on the cars costing up to Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh, on cars costing upto Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh 6 per cent tax is levied and for cars more than Rs 20 lakh 8 per cent road tax is levied.

For Maruti Suzuki India, Chandigarh, Haryana and Punjab are important auto markets within the country as the company here sells 8,000 cars monthly. These potential markets consist of 9 per cent of the company's total sales.

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