OKARA, Aug 25: Motorists are suffering as country’s major automobile battery manufacturing companies have raised the prices of their products on the pretext of hike in prices of lead, a metal vitally used in the manufacturing of the batteries.

According to the details, the four largest manufacturing companies have increased the prices of their 38 products by eight per cent to 15 per cent in retail during the past five months.

A local automotive dealer told Dawn that the price of a battery which was Rs5,850 in May had now risen to Rs8,000.

The manufacturing companies are advising the dealers to make purchases in bulk as prices are likely to be increased by another eight to 15 per cent in the first week of Sept.

The dealers told Dawn that after increase in prices of lead metal in the international market, local battery manufacturing companies got an opportunity to raise the prices of all kinds of batteries and fleece consumers.

They were of the view that the raise in batteries’ prices was comparatively much higher than the raise in the prices of lead in the international market.