The board will evaluate the impact of the demand slowdown on its sales and the overall dent it is expected to make on the bottomlines. "A few more routine matters will be on the agenda," the sources added.

The company is also likely to assess the impact of the recent price cuts on its bottomline. The company had announced a 4 per cent to 10 per cent drop in prices of its Maruti 800, Omni and Wagon-R models in a desperate attempt to boost sales. Maruti has also announced that it will fall short of meeting its 4.7 lakh sales target for the 2000-01 fiscal in view of the major drop in demand for its passenger cars.

"The first four months of the year has not been very encouraging and going by the sales pattern, we do not see a major growth this year. We have to find ways of overcoming the situation," the sources added.

The company's bottomline will also be under pressure this year due to its decision to absorb the production cost hike resulting from the softening of the Indian rupee. Some of the company's recently introduced models have high import content and the cost of producing these models have gone up following rupee devaluation.

"In the present market conditions, we have decided not to pass on the cost hike to consumers and absorb the entire hike. The rupee devaluation has increased landed cost of the vehicles by 2.5 to 3 per cent. We have not sold too many vehicles in the first five months and so there is no reason to further burden sales with a price hike."

The price cuts had failed to rev up sales of MUL's passenger cars and the company ended July with a 26 per cent drop in sales year-on-year and 58 per cent marketshare, down from 68.4 per cent a year ago, latest SIAM data said. MUL sold 27,665 passenger car units in July, down from 37,404 units in the same month a year ago. The company also cut down production from 38,090 units to 28,953 units in July, 2000, representing a 23.9 per cent decline. In the first four months of the current fiscal, Maruti sold 1,01,112 units, a 20 per cent decline from 1,26,535 units a year ago. The company ended the period with a 53 per cent marketshare, against 68.7 per cent a year earlier.The recent market borrowings and heavy depreciation on its investment would also take a toll on Maruti's profits.

The company had last month raised Rs 200 crore from the market by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDS) of seven-year duration. It is also looking at more borrowings from the market in order to fund its expansion programmes and introduction of new models.