Maruti Suzuki is likely to gain a lot, say Rs40000, from its new Swift which has procured tax reliefs. The losers are the customers, on the other hand. The company is in the market sharing a lion’s share(50%) and has launched the new petrol version (1.2lit) Swift while retaining the 1.3lit version at Rs4 lakhs. The move is to switch over to smaller engine which brings in 8% tax relief than the other one. The government has relaxed the tax for the cars with 4mt length and with 1.2 lit petrol and 1.5 lit diesel engines demands the same amount of tax. Whereas the regular cars attract 20% tax.
It is in the practice among the car makers to deliver this tax exemption to the customers by reducing the price. But Maruti does it only for this Swift which includes more price for its engine, says the company. SIAM refused to divulge on this issue and it is analyzing the situation. The industry experts defend Maruti’s move on the price of the engine cost for this new Swift. In addition, Maruti has to face the competition from the global small car makers like VW(Polo), Toyota (Etios) and Ford (Figo) who are launching them soon. Hence Maurti’s intention is to leverage on the price of its new Swift.
However, the competitors cannot compete against Maruti, observe the industry analysts. Swift is on the top in this segment which includes Hyundai’s i20, Honda Jazz, Skoda Fabia and Fiat Punto. Swift, launched in 2005, is leading the winning streak with a sale of more than 1 lakh units per year combined petrol and diesel versions. Maruti is confident of boosting its position in this segment with this new Swift.