istanbul jan 13 reuters  turkey has stepped up price thresholds for a special consumption tax on vehicles with small combustion engines while adding more categories the official gazette showed on thursday a move that will help cut vehicle prices a 60 tax rate is to be levied on vehicles with engines smaller than 1600cc in a price band of 150001 lira to 175000 lira after the adjustment the rate rises to 70 for vehicles that cost up to 200000 lira and 80 for those priced above 200000 lira previously all cars that cost more than 150000 lira were subject to the 80 rate the maximum price for the tax rate of 45 was raised from 92000 lira to 120000 lira and the threshold for the 50 tax rate was raised to between 120000 and 150000 lira passenger vehicles sold in turkey already under a large tax burden will see prices decrease as a result of the move though the benefit is likely to erode quickly as sellers are expected to hike prices because of a weak lira currency reporting by can sezer writing by ali kucukgocmen editing by clarence fernandez