Tata Motors, the country's third-biggest carmaker, has hiked the price of its premium small car Indica by an average of Rs 8,000 with immediate effect.

The new prices of the diesel variants 'DL', 'DL Euro-II' and 'DLX Euro-III' range from Rs 319,000 to Rs 402,000, a company spokesperson said in Mumbai.

The revised prices of the petrol models 'Lei' and 'LXi' range from Rs 327,000 to Rs 390,000, he said.

The mid-size car Indigo and utility-vehicles Sumo and Safari have, however, been spared from the latest price hike, the spokesperson added.

"The price rise had become inevitable due to the continuous rise in input costs through 2002 and 2003, which could not be absorbed fully by the company and had to be partially passed on to the market," a statement by Tata Motors said.

During April-December 2003, sales of Indica surged by 10.2 per cent to 56,624 units while that of Indigo, which was launched in December 2002, stood at 19,593 units.

The Indica competes with cars like Hyundai Santro, Maruti WagonR, Alto and Zen in the highly competitive compact car segment.

The Indigo is positioned in the sub-Rs 500,000 entry-level mid-size segment against models like Opel Corsa, Ford Ikon and Maruti Esteem.