Bangalore: “Even as companies are giving pink slips to employees as a result of the global meltdown, GM India is increasing its employee strength from the present 4,000 to 4,500 by 2009,” a top official of the company said.

“We will be increasing the number of our employees from 4,000 to 4,500 by 2009,” GM India Vice-President P Balendran said.

“The 500 include 300 for the car plant in Talegaon, 200 for the powertrain facility, also in Talegaon, and the engineering centre in Bangalore,” he said.

On slashing prices, Balendran said that the firm, which had been offering discounts ranging from Rs2,000 to Rs50,000, besides a discount of Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 to government and PSU employees during the festival season, would continue them (discounts) till the end of this month.

“However, the firm is planning a price hike of 2-3% in January 2009,” he said.

“The market was sluggish and the usual sales growth during the festive season, which used to be in the range of 25-30%, had come down to 5-7% this season,” he said.

“The main reason for the sluggishness is there is no liquidity in the market. 85% of GM’s vehicles are financed, of which 70% are by private banks,” he said.

On the Talegaon plant, Balendran said: “The capacity of the plant, which commenced operations in September 2008, can go up from 1.40 lakh units now to 3 lakh units.”