The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,288.7 crore in the previous financial year.
Commenting on the results, Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi told reporters here: "The year 2011-12 was a very challenging year for the auto industry. High inflation and interest rates along with high petrol prices impacted sales."
The small car segment was particularly hit as the customers are very cost sensitive, Nakanishi added.
He said the company suffered majorly due to its inability to supply more diesel cars and the market has shifted away from petrol cars, which is the main stay of MSI.
The biggest fall in profit before this was 29.6 per cent decline to Rs 1,218 crore in 2008-09.
"We also had labour unrest in Manesar which impacted sales," Nakanishi said.
On the cost side, a steep rise in yen along with fall in rupee also had an impact on performance, Nakanishi added.
The company sold 11,33,695 units during the year, down 10.8 per cent from 12,71,005 units in 2010-11.
With the company struggling to sell petrol cars, last year it gave discount on an average of about Rs 13,250 on each model. And for its best selling model Alto, it was between Rs 22,000 and Rs 25,000.
"There is a huge pressure to sell petrol cars and we had increased discount by about 12 per cent in the fourth quarter of this fiscal compared to the third," MSI Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said.
The company's board, which met today, recommended a dividend of 150 per cent (Rs 7.5 per share of face value Rs 5 each) for 2011-12. PTI RKL MSS RAH NS
