ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: The federal government has decided to extend the date for sale of vehicles imported under diplomatic privileges to local people to March 31, 2005, it is learnt.

Sources told Dawn on Wednesday that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had approved the extension of date from December 31, 2004 to March 31, 2005 on the demand of the diplomatic community at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet held recently.

A revised SRO to this effect would be issued in the next couple of days, the sources said. They said the structure on local sale of vehicles imported under the diplomatic privileges was revised in the budget 2004-05, but the diplomatic community had requested for a review of the structure and had also met the prime minister in this regard.

Some changes in the structure were also agreed upon by the ministry of foreign affairs with the Dean of Diplomatic Corps recently. Under the revised structure, the cut-off date for the sale of different categories of vehicles would be March 31 and April 1, 2005 instead of December 31, 2004 and January 1, 2005.