March 12, 2006	Sunday	Safar 11, 1427

KARACHI, march 11: Roads in the country, already crowded with traffic, will have to accommodate 16,885 of different types of vehicles imported during July-Feb, 2005-06 under transfer of residence, baggage and gift schemes as compared to only 5,177 units in the same period of 2004-05.

The government collected revenue amounting to Rs5.332 billion in custom duty in July-Feb on the import of vehicles worth Rs9.043 billion as compared to Rs2.440 billion on vehicles worth Rs3.390 billion in the same period last year.

The budgetary decision followed by the trade policy rules to relax conditions for the import of used cars under various schemes are now showing results while the local industry feels threatened over the frequent import of used cars. The import of used cars got momentum from August 2005, and it further increased from Jan 2006.

Sources in the Customs said that the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) had taken notice of the delay in clearance of vehicles under various schemes coupled with reports that the vehicles were being released on forged documents. As a result, five appraisers, one principal appraiser and one assistant collector had been transferred to other departments.

After January, new officials had been brought in the Collectorate to streamline the process of clearance of vehicles that had been parked at the port for many months. Collector Appraisement Ms Musarrat Jabeen had issued instructions to the officials to expedite the pace of clearance of vehicles in order to achieve higher revenues.

While the collectorate plans to speed up clearance of vehicles —the local car assemblers, who are currently loaded with bookings for up to six months, are somewhat worried over their investments which they have made for enhancement of plant capacity to meet the burgeoning demand of the locally assembled cars.

General Manager Marketing, Indus Motor Company (IMC), Raza Ansari said that the industry had started feeling the pinch of liberal imports of used cars by losing 30-40 per cent market share. As the import of cars increases, the industry will further lose its share.

He said IMC’s Toyota Altis has suffered declining trend in sales due to the import of used car of the same engine capacity.

Raza claimed that the under-invoicing of used cars was rampant due to lack of valuation system at the Customs.

However, he said IMC has kept the pace of production on the higher side by producing 180 cars a day in order to clear the backlog and reducing the delivery time of locally assembled cars. So far, there is no plan to shelve the investment to be made in capacity expansion of the plant.

Another leading car maker said that with the liberalized import and no check on used cars, the wheel of economy and technological growth is turning back and forcing the car makers and vendors to hold their planned investments of over Rs80 billion by 2010 in capacity expansion projects. As a chain reaction, he added, more than 200,000 people may lose their jobs.

However, Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan, during his recent visit to Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited (PSMCL) had assured the car makers of resolving the issue of imported cars on urgent basis. He added that the measures were of temporary nature to combat the current problems. He said that the government was with the local manufacturers and vendors for their future growth.