Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Ltd managing director Sachio Yamazaki said, "We want to bring the price to the normal level as our initial price was a special offer." Yamazaki said the 'touch & try' model was being offered at a specially discounted price to promote the multi-purpose vehicle.

He said even though sales of Qualis Anniversary vehicle took a dip in March, it will not fall short of the targetted sales of 1,000 vehicles by April.

Qualis currently has a 40 per cent market share in the multi-purpose vehicle segment. In the entire passenger car segment, its share is 4 per cent. The company's deputy managing director K K Swamy said March sales dipped because of the financial year closing where sales of most vehicles goes up. Hence, sales of premium brands like Qualis Anniversary get hit as the demand for basic models picks up. Till now, around 700 Qualis Anniversary vehicles have been sold so far.

Toyota has already increased the price of Qualis twice. Swamy said the company expected exim policy to favourable to the passenger vehicle segment. He said multi-purpose vehicle segment should be treated separately from that of the passenger car segment.

He pointed out that historically, MPVs were aligned with light commercial vehicles and the excise duty charged was comparable to that of LCVs. Swamy said when the feasbility study for MPVs was started, the tax was around 16 per cent which has now increased to 32 per cent. He also said the company might find competition from second hand imported vehicles which could be imported at the bound rate of duty of around 40 per cent.

He said, "While a passenger car, if it is run as a taxi, its tax goes down to 16 per cent, with respect to a utility vehicle, it remains around 32 per cent."

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Company is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and the Kirloskar Group. It launched its first multi-purpose vehicles, Qualis, more than a year ago. It has a market share of around 40 per cent in the multi-purpose vehicle segment. The company expects to achieve localisation of 70 per cent within the stipulated time frame of five years. At present, Toyota Motor Corporation has 88.86 per cent stake in its Indian joint venture, while its other partner, the Kirloskar Group has 11.14 per cent stake.