Skoda cars to get costlier by up to Rs 35,000 from March due to customs duty hike

Skoda Auto India has decided to increase prices across its models by up to Rs 35,000 to accomodate the custom duties hike in Union Budget 2018. The increase in prices will be put into effect from March 1. The Czech car manufacturer said that it will increase prices in a phased manner to lower the overall impact of the customs duty hike over a period of time.

"Effective March 1, Skoda Auto India will only increase prices by 1 per cent which translates to an increase of Rs 10,000 to Rs 35,000 across the entire model range," Skoda Auto India said in a statement.

It further said, "The multi-step price increase will range between 3 per cent to 4 per cent depending on the product and variant in the Skoda model range."

Skoda Auto sells a range of vehicles starting from mid-sized sedan Rapid priced with a starting price of Rs 8.32 lakh to SUV Kodiaq tagged at Rs 34.5 lakh.

In addition, the company said it has also introduced a loyalty bonus of up to Rs 50,000 for existing customers, who intend to purchase another Skoda product.

In the Budget for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley increased custom duty on CKD (completely knocked down) imports of motor vehicles, motor cars, motor cycles from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

Further, duty on CBU (completely built units) imports of motor vehicles (trucks and buses) has been hiked from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.