The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday reported a 21.87 per cent jump in its total sales during March at 85,669 units, as compared to 70,296 units in the same month last year.

The company also recorded its highest-ever annual sales in 2008-09 at 792,167 units as against 764,842 units the previous fiscal, a rise of 3.57 per cent. The previous highest annual sales were in 2007-08.

'2008-09 marked Maruti Suzuki's silver jubilee year in India. Over these 25 years, the company sold over 70 lakh (7 million) cars in the domestic market. Additionally, over five lakh cars have been exported the world over,' Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.

For March, MSI's domestic sales stood at 73,855 units compared with 64,421 units in the same month a year ago, up by 14.64 per cent, it said.

MSI registered an over two-fold increase in its exports last month at 11,814 units, as against 5,875 units in the corresponding month last year.

After September last year, MSI's sales in October, November and December had declined drastically by 7.1 per cent, 27.4 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. In January and February, the company's sales, however, rose by 5.39 per cent and 24.08 per cent, respectively.

Sales of its once bread-and-butter model M800, however, fell by 61.75 per cent at 2,430 units last month against 6,353 units in the same period last year. The company has announced its decision to phase out the M800, along with the Omni, from the market by 2016.

The A2 segment (comprising the A-Star, the Alto, the Zen Estilo, the Swift and the WagonR) sales stood at 55,415 units against 41,869 units, registering an increase of 32.35 per cent.

The company posted a 14.05 per cent sales growth in the A3 segment (consisting of the SX4, the Esteem and the Swift DZiRE) at 8,595 units as against 7,536 units last year.

MSI's total passenger car sales moved northward by 13.58 per cent to 72,461 units against 63,799 units last year.

For the fiscal 2008-09, the NCR-based auto maker posted a rise of 1.45 per cent in its total sales in the domestic market at 722,144 units as compared to 711,818 units in the year-ago period. Exports jumped by 32.06 per cent at 70,023 units in FY'09 as against 53,024 units in FY'08, MSI said.

Its total passenger car sales rose marginally to 714,655 units last fiscal, from 707,897 units in the previous fiscal.

'During the year, the company continued its focus on long-term initiatives, despite the challenging market situation,' the company said.

MSI had launched its new technology K10B series engine in the last fiscal. It had also launched the hatchback A-Star during the period, besides introducing the LPG version of the M800.

'The capacity to manufacture expanded from 800,000 units to 10,00,000 (1 million) units annually in the Gurgaon and Manesar plants,' MSI said, adding dedicated export port facilities for the shipment of the A-Star was also completed at Mundra in 2008-09.

MSI has planned to increase its R&D strength to 1,000 engineers by 2010 from the existing 730.

Besides, the company in December 2008, also launched a National Road Safety Mission to train 500,000 people in safe driving over the next three years.