According to the Hindustan Times, the company said earlier this week that it had only promised to keep the price down for the first batch of customers. The Indians seem to be hinting a price reevaluation when the ordering books will be opened once again.
"Deliveries to the first lot of customers should be over by December... prices of commodities and logistics have gone up, so we'll look into the pricing of the car closer to the date of fresh bookings," Tata vice-chairman Ravi Kant told the paper.
The Nano model is currently being manufactured at Tata's Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand, which gets tax breaks as the region is a zero excise zone. But this is just a temporary solution, as the Indian car manufacturer was forced to abandon an almost complete plant built for the new car after violent protests over land confiscation for the factory and an adjacent supplier park.
As the production at a new plant in Sanand, Gujarat, will start in April, the increased tax will affect Nano’s retail price.
"Pantnagar enjoys some tax sops which Sanand does not. Also, our suppliers transport components from far off areas to Uttarakhand, which increases logistic costs," Prakash Telang, managing director of Tata's India operations told the Hindustan Times. "It is logical (to expect an increase), but we have not arrived at a final decision yet."
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