ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: The import of complete knocked-down (CKD) and semi-knocked-down (SKD) cars recorded a decline of 6.8 per cent during the first half (July-Dec) of the current fiscal year over the same period of last year.

Official figures available with Dawn showed that the import of CKD and SKD vehicles declined to 64,364 units during the period under review against 69,083 units imported by the local automotive industry during the same period of the last year.

A further break-up of imports showed that during the whole year of 2004-05, the import of CKD and SKD vehicles rose by 61.98 per cent to 151,597 units against 93,589 units imported during the year 2003-04.

At the same time, the statistics revealed, that the import of complete built-up unit (CBU) cars registered a massive growth of 256.2 per cent during the first half of the current fiscal year over the same period of the last year.

In absolute terms, the number of the imported CBU cars stood at 10,244 during the July-Dec period of this year against 2,876 cars imported during the same period of the last year.

The increase recorded in the import of CBU cars was due to reduction in Customs duties and taxes in the last budget and the relaxation in import of used cars by the overseas Pakistanis.

The chairman of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association, Kunwar Idrees, talking to Dawn on telephone ruled out that there was a decline in local production of cars.

He justified the decline registered in the import of CKD and SKD vehicles due to the inventory adjustment problems.

“It has not happened because there is a decrease in production. There is no shortage of locally made cars and there is also no let-up in demand for local cars,” he added.

The statistics, however, showed that revenue collections registered a growth of 14.57 per cent to Rs16.729 billion during the July-Dec period this year as against Rs14.601 billion during the same period of the last year.

The tax officials raised Rs29.822 billion revenue from the import of CKD and SKD vehicles during the year 2004-05 against Rs22.428 billion fetched during 2003-04, indicating an increase of 32.96 per cent.

Similarly, the revenue collected on import of CBU cars rose by 202.1 per cent to Rs6.860 billion during the first half of this year against Rs2.271 billion during the same period of last year.

Moreover, the collection of duties and taxes from the import of CBU cars during the whole year of 2004-05 stood at Rs5.997 billion against Rs1.096 billion collected during the year 2003-04, showing an increase of 447.06 per cent.