Hike in road tax in states to adversely car sales: Maruti

The country's largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki today said the hike in road tax and registration taxes announced by several states in the country would have an adverse impact on car sales.

"Absolutely, it (high road tax) will adversely affect car sales," the company's chief general manager, Shashank Srivastava told reporters in Chandigarh today, when asked about road tax affecting sales.

Srivastava was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event marking the launch of Maruti Suzuki India's (MSIL) luxury sports sedan Kizashi last evening.

However, he did not give an indication of the extent of the impact. "It is very difficult to tell about it," he said, adding that state road taxes have also been increased by governments of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

The matter assumes significance given that Haryana and the union territory of Chandigarh raised their road tax substantially last month, while Punjab is also considering a revision of its lump sum tax on sales of vehicles.

While Chandigarh earlier levied road tax of around Rs2,500 for a four wheeler, it now levies 2 per cent tax on cars priced up to Rs6 lakh, 3 per cent on vehicles priced between Rs6 lakh to Rs20 lakh and 4 per cent on cars costing above Rs20 lakh.