Maruti Suzuki, India?s largest carmaker, has no plans to upgrade its lowest-priced Maruti 800 model to meet Euro IV emissions standards, chairman RC Bhargava said on Friday. Bhargava said sales of the model would be discontinued in 13 Indian cities from April.

The auto major also said it would hire an additional 950 people in the next fiscal including some expatriates from Europe and the US. ?We are looking at 950 people for 2010-11. A good chunk will go for research and development,? Maruti Suzuki India managing executive officer (administration, HR, finance and IT) SY Siddiqui told reporters on the sidelines of SIAM HR conclave. At present, MSI has a staff strength of 7,500.

Enrollment in the next fiscal will be higher than the 800 people recruited this fiscal by the company, Siddiqui said. He, however, said the company might go for an additional hiring once details are finalised about its upcoming capacity expansion at the Manesar plant. It is 950 as of now and will get revised when we look at the expanded capacity, he said.

The company will also go for overseas hiring as part of its plans to tap the global talent pool. ?By April, we will be finalising a few guys and around 10 guys may join us by May-June. We are looking at Europe as a major area for hiring expatriates and all the new overseas employees will have experiences of 7-8 years to 27-28 years,? Siddiqui said.

The company already employees over a dozen expatriate staff, mainly from the US and Europe, and they are recruited both as direct employees on the pay roll or under retainership.

When asked about the impact on revenue due to the planned hiring next fiscal, Siddiqui said, ?around 2% of our sales revenue goes to salary of the employees. Our hiring and salary were not affected even during the recent downturn and definitely this year our salary offering will be more competitive than last year.?

Meanwhile, MSI also said it opposes the Parikh Committee recommendations for flat increase of excise duty on all kinds of diesel vehicles. Bhargava said the hike should be based on engine capacity of respective model.