The price hike comes barely eight months after the market leader announced a hefty price cut to take on competition, particularly from Tata's Indica.

The highest price hike of Rs 10,000 was in the case of MUL's entry level model M-800 Standard. The car would now cost Rs 1,91,584 (ex-showroom, Delhi) against Rs 1,81,584 earlier, company sources said.

Zen LX will cost Rs 8,000 more now at Rs 2,97,575 as compared to Rs 2,89,575, company sources said. On the other hand, the price of Zen VX has increased by Rs 4,000 to Rs 3,43,800.

When contacted, a Maruti spokesman confirmed that the price hike had already been effected but did not give reasons for the sudden move.

Interestingly, the company has hiked prices ahead ofmaking its vehicles euro-ii compliant to keep down pollution as per the order of supreme court, which said that allcars should meet the stringent norms before April 1, 2000.

This is likely to entail an additional expenditure ofaround Rs. 20,000 to Rs 30,000 on each car as they have to be fitted with a crucial part called multi-point-fuel-injection system, sources said.

The deluxe version of 800 cc model with AC, would cost Rs 7,062 more than the previous price of Rs 2,30,720, sources said.

Another variant of M-800 series, ex, would fetch a price of Rs 2,12,290 as compared to Rs 2,05,759, that is Rs 6,531 higher than the earlier price.

However, the company lowered the price of its Zen diesel model by Rs 3,920 to Rs 4,14,265 from Rs 4,18,185.

The prices of other Maruti models remained unchanged at their previous levels, sources said.

Maruti did not touch the pricing structure of its cheapest car `Omni', priced below M-800 Standards model.

The company had announced a major price cut ranging between Rs 7,000 to Rs 36,000 on December 30, 1998, on six car models, a day ahead of Telco's Indica launch.

Meanwhile,Maruti created a record by selling 35,907 passenger cars in August, the highest ever sales registered by the company since its inception 15 years ago.

The previous best was recorded in the month of July when MUL sold 35,407 cars.

The company's sales also zoomed up by 20 per cent to 1,57,419 units in the first five months of the current fiscal against 1,32,046 units sold in April-August of 1998-99.

An all time high monthly sales was posted by Maruti-800, Zen and Omni models during the review month.