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Maruti June car sales up 64 per cent on low base

India's largest car-maker Maruti Udyog Ltd said on Monday its car sales in June jumped 64 per cent to 26,092 units, inflated by last year's low base when a price increase hit sales.

Maruti sold 15,908 units in June last year, a company statement said.

June sales were 16.2 per cent lower than May's 31,140 units.

Maruti's sales slid sharply last June due to an increase in prices resulting from higher state taxes and the introduction of more expensive emission reducing technologies.

Consumers, anticipating the price increase, had also shifted purchases forward.

"Despite an overall sluggish market, Maruti's cumulative sales in April-June 2001 were about 17 per cent higher than the same period last year," the statement said.

Maruti, in which the Indian government and Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp each hold 50 per cent equity, had an Indian market share of 58.8 per cent in April-May, the first two months of this financial year.

Its domestic car sales in the previous year to March fell 12.5 per cent to 329,542 from 376,642 in 1999-00 (April-March).

The company's June sales included 10,860 of its small Maruti 800 model and 4,236 Omni vans.

In the premium small car segment, it sold 5,975 units of the Zen model, 1,931 of the Wagon R and 2,192 of its recently launched Alto. It sold 812 Esteems and 86 Balenos in the mid-size car segment, the statement added.

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