ISLAMABAD, June 29: Engineering Development Board (EDB) will monitor the performance of tyre industry for the first quarter of next fiscal year (July-Sept, 2006) in order to suggest measures to protect the local manufacturers.

This was decided at a meeting held here on Thursday with Imtiaz Rastgar, CEO, EDB in the chair. Sales and import figures of tyres in the country will be reviewed in comparison to last year to judge the progress of the industry.

It may be recalled that tyres are the only component left out of Tariff Based System (TBS) effective from July 1, 2006 for the auto sector. The dilemma is that if tyres are provided tariff protection with higher duty on import, its smuggling will increase. So the CBR and EDB are looking for a strategy to provide necessary protection without disturbing the new system. The meeting was called to solve this problem.All the four main car assemblers and MD of a tyre manufacturing company were present. The car assemblers assured that they were using Pakistani tyres and would continue to use these but the customers’ preference has to be given due importance. In order to satisfy the customers, they have initiated the steps to improve the quality of local tyres.

The meeting was informed that a car assembler had recently taken staff of the tyre company to Japan for training. The MD of the tyre company informed the meeting that the management had invested millions of rupees in modernising the machinery. He also raised the issues of under-invoicing and smuggling.

Mr Rastgar in his address briefed the participants about background of the decision of not including tyres in TBS and the latest developments. He underlined the need to evolve a trust related system between the car assemblers and the tyres manufacturer.