Prices of Maruti passenger cars are likely to go up shortly, Jagdish Khattar, the managing director of Maruti Udyog Ltd, said in Chennai on Friday.

"A price revision is not very far off", Khattar told reporters without divulging the quantum of the proposed hike.

He said input costs had of late increased by at least two per cent, mainly due to the frequent upsurge in prices of core manufacturing materials like steel, in the last six months.

The prices of aluminium, rubber and diesel had also gone up considerably, he said, adding that there was a limit to how much the company could withstand the input cost pressure.

He said that the company was yet to work out the proposed hike and felt that it would be difficult to pass on the whole two per cent increase in input cost to the consumers.

Khattar said the company would be launching Suzuki's premium passenger car model Grand Vitara, as CBUs (completely built-in units) next month in the Indian market.

The price of this imported model was yet to be decided, he said, adding, "according to media speculations, it would cost around Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million)."

Khattar said in view of the stiff competition from emerging new players in the passenger car market, the company's latest strategy was to cover more cities through its 'true value' outlets and open dealerships in all centres, where Maruti's nearest competitors had their presence.

He said the recently launched "true value" outlets dealing with Maruti second hand cars were fast getting popular and the company planned to have a total of 50 such outlets by this month end and about 1000 by the year end across the country.

He said the second hand car business run by companies like Maruti was in for a major boom, since banks like the State Bank of India, which had the largest reach, had brought down interest rates of second hand car loans on par with that of new cars.

He said the company was presently in the process of adding more dealers in metros and 'A' class cities, where the competition was hotting up. In Delhi alone, the company would be adding five more dealers.

Khattar said the company was also 'amicably' weeding out some existing dealers for 'good' and added that at least 12 dealers had left the Maruti fold in the last few months.  

The company at present had a market share of 54 per cent, he said, adding that efforts were on to increase this in the coming fiscal.