Italy's Fiat group, which recently announced its restructuring plan, would continue to support its Indian car making subsidiary, according to a Fiat India statement issued in Mumbai on Thursday.
Fiat India would also restructure its capital to wipe out the accumulated losses, it said.
"Work is proceeding as usual at our Kurla plant in Mumbai and we are on schedule for the launch of the new petrol variant of Palio, which will be unveiled shortly," the statement said, quoting Fiat India CMD Alberto Montanari, who just returned from Italy, where Fiat group's restructuring plan was announced last week.
"Our immediate focus will also be on instilling confidence in our dealers, vendors and customers and we are working hard to enhance our customer service," he added.
Referring to the performance in India, he said since the launch of Palio in September 2001, the financial position of Fiat India has improved and losses for 2002 were 65 per cent less than the previous year".
This was a clear indication that the company's performance moved in the right direction and with the recently launched Palio diesel being well accepted by the Indian market, the effort was continuing, he said adding, the sales of Palio have been steadily increasing from January 2003.
Montanari said the Indian plant plays an integral role in terms of supplying components to other Fiat facilities in Italy, Morocco, South Africa and Poland".
He said based on the response to various models in terms of customer feedback and volume potential, Fiat India has been developing its export programme for identified markets.
Fiat's plans for export of cars manufactured in India was guided by the principle of identifying "right hand" drive markets, where the company does not already have an industrial presence and hence the focus on the neighbouring South-East Asian markets, he added.
In June, the company registered sales of 1,131 units as against 1,204 units sold in the corresponding period of last year.
Out of the total cars sold, Palio accounted for 1,037 units, while the remaining 94 were Siena, Adventure and Uno.
Fiat said, "The fact that our sales figure for June 2003 have held steady inspite of various rumours that have been circulating in the market is a very positive signal and a clear indication of Palio's popularity".
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