18 September 2004	Saturday	02 Shaban 1425

ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: Industries and Production Minister Jehangir Tareen has asked automobile manufacturers to make long- and short-term policies for removing the gap between demand and supply, timely delivery and reduction in prices of cars.

The minister asked the manufacturers to come up with their own solution to solve the premium problem, which had given a bad name to the whole sector. They were also asked to submit their recommendations in this regard within two weeks.

The minister made these observations while presiding over a meeting with the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) held here on Friday. This was the second meeting that the minister has held to solve the problems of premium over pricing.

The first meeting was held with the Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts Manufacturers (PAAPAM). The third meeting will be held with the CBR to investigate the NTN authenticity of each buyer, revise duty structure and develop a coherent long-term policy perspective.

The minister intends to hold a meeting with the Central Board of Revenue to develop a database to ensure that the car buyer is genuine. The minister asked the assemblers to increase their production capacity and make new investment in this sector to meet the demand of the people, which would create more employment in the country.

"We have to focus on high volume and low cost availability of the auto products. The government will support the auto industry and pull our resources to jointly address the problems of the manufacturers and the consumers," Mr Tareen added.

The minister also asked them to support the vendor industry and achieve maximum deletion level to meet the challenges of WTO regime. The government would also facilitate the manufacturers by giving them more incentives, he assured. The minister also promised to resolve the problems of the auto industry.

Mr Tareen expressed his displeasure over poor delivery schedule of vehicles, black marketing and quality of cars and asked them to address all these issues. Earlier, PAMA Chairman Kunwar Idress made a detailed presentation about the auto industry, investment in this sector, capacity, and production by the manufacturers, delivery schedule and their problems.

The manufacturers demanded reduction in the duties structure to reduce the prices of the cars and incentives to revive the confidence of investors and to attract more investment in this sector.

The government has adopted a dual track strategy for solving the problems of the consumers. In the first place, provincial governments will be asked to streamline their vehicle registration procedures to make sure that investors are shunted out and only real owners take possession of the vehicle.

The same procedure would be adopted in case of NTN numbers. The meeting was attended by Ministry of Industries Secretary Dr Mutwakil Kazi, manufacturers of cars and buses and tractors. -APP