Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, is on track to sell one million vehicles in the current year to March on the back of rebounding economy but sees the next year challenging on rising raw material prices and a possible roll back of government stimulus package.
Chairman R.C Bhargava said the company, which sells one of every two cars in India and dominates the compact car segment, would have to look at the tax impact if the government withdraws incentives.
"All these are concerns and it is not possible to make a firm accurate forecast of what will happen in the next 15 months," he told Reuters in an interview, referring to the outlook for the coming year. Sales in 2009/10 are expected to jump 26 percent from 792,166 units in the previous year, with exports set to double to 145,000 units, he said.
Maruti, in which Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp has 54.2 percent stake, has already sold nearly 731,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of this year. Bhargava said exports were likely to be maintained in 2010/11, with sales to new markets such as Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
An end to a scheme to scrap older cars in Europe this year is expected to have a significant impact on the sales of Maruti's A-Star hatchback, which is exported to several countries there including Germany, Britain and France.
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