Maruti Suzuki to hike car prices by up to Rs 34,494

New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India's top-selling carmaker, will raise the prices of its passenger vehicles by up to 34,494 rupees, after the government imposed a new 'green' tax on all cars sold in the country.

The price of its smart hybrid models, which are exempt from the new tax, will not be raised, Maruti has stated.

"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," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement.

Ciaz SHVS and Ertiga SHVS are exempt from the infrastructure cess and so, there is no change in the prices of these models, it added.

The automobile company did not specify when they will apply the new prices.

The company currently sells a range a vehicles starting from entry-level car Alto 800 to premium crossover S-Cross, priced between Rs 2.54 lakh and Rs 11.69 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Yesterday, German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz announced its plan to raise prices of its entire product portfolio by up to Rs 5 lakh from March 15.

Already, Tata Motors hiked the prices of its passenger vehicles in the range of Rs 2,000 and Rs 35,000 while Hyundai Motor India and Honda Cars India have also stated their intention to hike prices in the range of Rs 3,000 to Rs 80,000 on their respective product portfolios.

In his budget on Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the tax, effective immediately, is aimed at helping fight high levels of air pollution and congestion.

The government has decided to impose 2.5 per cent cess on diesel vehicles of length not exceeding 4 meter and engine capacity not exceeding 1,500 cc while higher engine capacity and SUVs and bigger sedans were slapped with a cess of 4 per cent on the value of the car.

These are over and above a cess of 1 per cent on petrol/ LPG/CNG driven vehicles of length not exceeding 4 meter and engine capacity not exceeding 1,200 cc.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also proposed "to collect tax at source at the rate of 1 per cent on purchase of luxury cars exceeding value of Rs 10 lakh.

With inputs from Reuters, PTI