Eveready Industries India has hiked the prices of its range of dry cell batteries by 5 to 10 percent, a senior company official said here.

The prices were increased from Friday.

'Over the past 4-5 months there has been a continuous upward climb in the prices of zinc, a key raw material for making batteries, which has adversely impacted the manufacturing cost of carbon zinc batteries. The product segment also had to take on a hike in excise duty from 8 percent to 10 percent in the 2010 Union Budget.

'These have left us with very little option but to pass on a part of the increase in costs to the market. We are increasing the MRP of all types of batteries by 5 percent to 10 percent with immediate effect,' Vice Chairman and Managing Director Deepak Khaitan said in a statement.

Eveready is country's largest producer of carbon zinc batteries selling about 1.2 billion batteries annually.