Tata Motors to slash Indica, Indigo prices as sales plunge

Tata Motors is set to slash prices of its Indica hatchback and Indigo sedan as its battles falling sales in the domestic market.

The prices could be reduced by as much as Rs 50,000 and the minimum price cut on passenger cars (excluding Nano) will be around Rs 29,000, CNBC-TV18 reported on Saturday quoting a company official.

The price cut move is to give value proposition to customers on Tata products and make Tata vehicles more attractive, the official said.

However, the fact is that the company's passenger car sales are on a slide, faster than the overall industry slowdown.

For instance, Tata Motors' sales in February plunged 70 percent year-on-year to just 10,613 units.

While the passenger car prices are set to see a cut, the prices of its utility vehicles will go up with immediate effect.

Tata Motors will hike UV prices by around Rs 50,000 to offset the hike in excise duty announced in the Union Budget. The Finance Minister had announced that the excise duty on SUVs will go up to 30 percent from 27 percent.

Thus, the price of Sumo and Safari will go up by Rs 35,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively, the official said.

Rival and country's top UV maker Mahindra & Mahindra had also announced a price hike across its products, excluding the Quanto, by more than 2 percent following the excise hike.

Tata Motors shares closed at Rs 288.40 on NSE on Friday, up 0.3 percent from previous close.