KARACHI, Sept 11: The physical examination of the CNG buses imported from Sharjah, UAE, by a private party has reconfirmed the Indian origin of the buses, a source told Dawn adding the findings also proved that a deliberate attempt had been made to mislead the authorities and to violate the import policy.

According to the current Trade Policy automobile products of any kind and auto component are in the negative list and could not be imported directly or indirectly from India.

The customs authorities detained these buses about 20 days ago on the suspicion of being of Indian origin. The authorities also carried out investigation and collected some information with regard to their make, components used and names of the manufacturer and commercial exporter but could not arrive at any firm conclusion.

Consequently, they sought the help of local assemblers of trucks and buses to carry out physical examination of the 15 buses carrying the brand name of “Ashok Leyland.” In all 25 fully dedicated CNG buses are reported to have been booked by a private importer from a Sharjah based company.

In the process of examination of these buses the investigating teams of four local assemblers found that the brand logo of Ashok Leyland was found on many components like steering wheel and wheel rims. The brand ‘Made in India’ was found on engine and many other components like generators etc.

It was also observed that a conscious effort has been made to remove, hide and erase the “Made in India” tag at different places by painting and rubbing.The investigating team observed that though the shipping documents disclosed that these buses were exported by M/s Ashok Leyland of Sharjah to Pakistan, which was merely a trading company but the fact was that there was no assembly plant in the UAE where the bus chassis were manufactured or assembled.

The name of the manufacturer indicated on the vehicles is M/S Trans Continental Industries LLC (TCILLC) UAE. According to information available on the company’s website, TCILLC is a venture of Vectra in India, which has joint venture with the Azad Group in Bangalore, India, for the manufacturing of automotive super structure for the Indian and export market.

Website information from the “Times of India” dated August 10, 2007, clearly stated that Vectra’s joint venture in Abu Dhabi will source the bus chassis for bus bodies from Ashok Leyland.

The investigating team also challenged the claim that buses were affixed with Hino engines and said it was not correct and was a gross mis-statement. These engines were manufactured in India, they added.

The investigating team comprising four local assemblers was unanimous in its view that these buses were of Indian origin.

Based on their examination and background information about the manufacturer and exporter of these buses it was concluded that the bus chassis were brought to UAE from India and body work with very little value addition was carried out in UAE for export to Pakistan to show the product as “made in UAE” in order to circumvent and violate the import policy.