April 14, 2002	Sunday	Muharram 30, 1423

KARACHI, April 13: Automobile consumers continue to face difficulties in getting delivery of their booked motor cars despite assemblers’ claim that they had increased production during March.

Certain motor car dealers are alleged to be charging premium on the popular brands from their customers.

Indus Motor, the makers of Toyota Corolla, produced 390 cars last month as compared to 52 models in February. In March, 260 Corollas were sold as against 40 in February.

Honda Civic production surged to 405 units last month as against 375 units in February. Total sales in March stood at 364 units as compared to 335 units in February.

A total of 258 Honda City rolled out of the assembly line in March as compared to 126 units in February while sales totalled 241 units in March, up from February’s 181.

Production of Suzuki Baleno touched the 149 units mark last month, of which 100 were sold. In February, 91 units were assembled, of which 56 were sold out.

Alto 1000cc production surged to 329 units in March with sales touching 239 units. In February, the production was recorded at 290 units and sales at 279 units.

Mehran 800cc production peaked at 1,001 units with sales of 1,003 units in March. By contrast, 651 units were assembled in February with sales totalling 678 units.

It may be recalled that Commerce Minister, Abdul Razak Dawood had assured that new cars would now be delivered within three months of booking and consumers would be compensated with an interest payment on a period exceeding three months

On the contrary, Indus Motors had issued an advertisement a few days back that the company will now be completing deliveries of previously-ordered cars latest by September.

The decision of Indus Motors contradicts Dawood’s claim but the commerce ministry has been tight-lipped over this delayed car delivery schedule. Toyota cars are now being booked on full payment.

One of Toyota’s authorized dealers said the new petrol car, if booked today, will be delivered in October. No premium was being charged as supply had improved and there was no shortage of cars in the market, he claimed.

Authorised dealers of Suzuki said that cars will be delivered within 10-15 days of booking without a premium being charged. Dealers of Honda cars are fixing September as the delivery month.

Market sources said the government appeared to have permitted the car assembler to hold money and earn interest in millions. Assuming that an assembler has booked 1,000 cars, with each unit carrying a price tag of Rs1 million, the company has thus built up a cash mountain of Rs1 billion to earn interest on.

Chairman, All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association, H.M. Shahzad informed President Pervaiz Musharraf on April 10 that the commerce minister had finally surrendered to auto assemblers.

He said the minister knew full well the auto industry had performed unsatisfactorily since its inceptio