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A. Roy Chowdhury

Luxury model: Mr Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO, DaimlerChrysler India, at the launch of Mercedes-Benz CL-Class in Kolkata on Saturday. —

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Sept. 8

DaimlerChrysler India Pvt Ltd on Saturday presented a case for lowering of excise duty on mid-sized and large cars from 24 per cent to a uniform level of 16 per cent.

Speaking to newspersons at a function held here to launch the Mercedes-Benz CL Class, Dr Wilfred Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO of DaimlerChrysler India, said a lower and uniform rate of excise duty of 16 per cent would help the industry generate higher sales volumes. “Companies and component manufacturers will make more investments if sales volumes are higher,” he said.

Dr Aulbur said sales of Mercedes-Benz in India had grown by 22 per cent during January-August 2007 compared with the corresponding period of last year. While a total of 2,121 cars were sold in 2006, the company has sold 1,681 variants during the first eight months of 2007.

To cater to the growing demand for Mercedes-Benz cars in India, DaimlerChrysler India is augmenting the production capacity at its new plant in Pune to 5,000 passenger vehicles per annum.

The company is moving out of its rented facility in Pune to its own 100-acre facility near the city.

Investment in the new plant has been pegged at €50 million.

According to Dr Aulbur, the company would soon launch buses and trucks in India. While the ‘Actros’ brand truck is already present in select sectors of industry in the country, buses from the DaimlerChrysler stable would be rolled out in 2008. The chassis components of these buses would be imported from Germany, he said.

India has emerged as a major exporter of auto components to the world. Auto components exports from the country were growing by 20 per cent year-on-year, he said, adding that the company was the third-largest auto components exporter from India. He declined to divulge projected sales targets for the current year.

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DaimlerChrysler seeks lower, uniform excise duty

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