Mahindra & Mahindra hikes passenger, commercial vehicle prices

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Mahindra & Mahindra , India's top utility vehicle maker, has increased prices of its passenger and commercial vehicles by an average 1 percent effective this month to offset rising input costs, the company said on Tuesday.

The increase will be in the range of 2,300 rupees ($37) to 11,500 rupees ($187) depending on the model, it said in a statement to the stock exchange.

"We have been holding back on price hikes for a while but now it has been necessitated to partly offset the impact of rising input costs," said Pravin Shah, chief executive, automotive division & international operations at Mahindra.

The company, part of the $17 billion Mahindra Group, has also increased the price of its tractors by between 6,000 rupees ($97) and 10,000 rupees ($162) to offset an increase in commodity prices and conversion costs.

Mahindra is the world's largest manufacturer of tractors by volume.

($1 = 61.6075 rupees)

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)