Honda Cars India To Soon Hike Prices Due To Increased Customs Duty

Honda Cars India will soon join the list of manufacturers who are set to increase car prices in the country. The price revision comes as a result of the increased customs duty, which was recently announced at the Union Budget 2018. Considering none of the Honda cars come with 100 per cent localisation in India, the entire model range is set to be affected by the increase in import duty, leading to an inevitable price hike. While the company is still working on how much of the increased import duty will be passed on to the customers, we expect it to be somewhere in the range of 2-3 per cent. As of now, we have been told that the revision of prices is expected to be announced in a week's time.

Honda Cars India current sells a total of eight models in the Indian market - Brio, Jazz, Amaze, WR-V, City, BR-V, CR-V, and the Accord Hybird. Except for the Accord Hybrid, which is a completely built up (CBU) unit and the CR-V, which comes to India as a completely knocked down (CKD) unit, rest all car are manufactured locally. Considering, the increase in the basic customs duty of auto parts, accessories and CKD components vary from 5 to 10 per cent, clubbed with the new Social Welfare Surcharge at 10 per cent, we expect the price of the India-made Honda cars to go up by 2-3 per cent, at least. Customs duty in CBU models, however, has gone up by 5 per cent, so the price of the Honda Accord Hybrid, which is a full import, will also see some price hike.

Honda says that new parts that are being imported to India after the Budget announcement have already started attracting increased customs duty, which is why the company is working on finalising the revised pricing as soon as possible. However, prices of the vehicles that are already in the market will remain unchanged, until an official announcement comes from the company. This also means that if you are looking forward to buying a Honda car, this might be the right time to do it.