KARACHI, Feb 15: A number of used cars that found their way into Pakistan under gift and transfer of residence (TR) schemes in the last one year have women behind them as "importers".

Used car dealers are not ready to reveal the actual picture behind it as to why a person, living abroad, prefers to send a car under the gift scheme to his wife or mother only instead of other blood relations.

Is it because of the government policy to gift cars to only wife, mother and father, or it is a calculated effort to send the car to female companions in order to stay away from the tax net or avoid any other official investigation.

Women's names are commonly used in the front in many business transactions. In real estate transaction, many people buy property or land on the name of wife or mother in a bid to keep them away from any enquiries of assets, income statements, payment of taxes and other legal formalities from customs officials who are willing to broaden the tax net in the country.

Not only in real estate, women's names are also being used in other high profile business deals and transactions in order to keep customs and taxation officers in the dark from various enquiries.

Many market people are of the same opinion that the same technique has also been adopted in sending cars to only wives and mothers instead of other blood relations. A random look at the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) data reveals that most of the cars and vehicles, landed in Pakistan, have women's names in the column of "importer name/importer address".

All Pakistan Motor Dealers' Association (APMDA) President H.M. Shahzad tries to defend this by saying that there is a government rule/policy that a Pakistani, living abroad, can send cars to only his wife, mother and father under the gift scheme.

"The trend of sending cars under the gift scheme to mother or wife has been in vogue for many years and there is nothing extraordinary about it," he said, adding that the procedure of bringing car from abroad was very transparent.

He said that a car under gift or any other schemes was cleared after paying all duties and taxes, so there was no element of under-invoicing, stealing of taxes and duties or any kind of fraud, as everything was paid at the Customs Department with all documentary proofs.

Aristo cars partner Sarfaraz Hussain Dhangi said that it was not a new phenomenon that Pakistanis were sending cars in abundance to their wives and mothers only. "It has been in practice even when import duties were very high."

He also said that a person, living abroad, could only send car to his wife, mother or father, and there was no element of any tax evasion, as the person had met all legal requirements and was a genuine taxpayer.

He said that a person, living anywhere in the world, who intended to send a car to his wife or mother, had to submit documents and evidence to Pakistani diplomatic missions abroad about his income by legitimate earnings during his stay abroad. The mission after scrutiny of documents and evidence of a person issues a gift undertaking.

Mr Dhanji said that used car dealers had been demanding of the government to allow commercial import of used cars to only those persons who were genuine taxpayers. He observed that importing cars under gift, baggage and TR carried a lot of documentation and complication.

He said that Toyota Vitz, Platz and Deut (one or two-year old) had arrived in Pakistan at a price ranging between Rs700,000 and Rs850,000. Their prices may range between Rs500,000 and Rs650,000 in case they are commercially allowed, as the import cars under various schemes involved too many documentation works.

According to the PRAL data, import of used cars had increased to 786 units in 2004 from 265 units in 2003, while new car imports surged to 1,540 units from 899 in the last one year. A total of 377 used pickups arrived in 2004, as compared to 298, while 1,008 new pickups arrived last year, as compared to 366 in 2003.

Car dealers attributed the increase in import of used vehicles to a cut in import duties announced in the budget for 2004-05. Rising imports of costly cars also give away the impression that the market has tremendous liquidity and is still hungry to absorb new imported cars at a time when country's road network is becoming insufficient to carry the additional burden of vehicles.

The demand for locally-assembled cars has already swelled in the last two years because of attractive auto leasing and bank financing coupled with huge demand and supply gap.

Used car dealers said that premiums on locally-assembled cars were still on the rise because of thin supply from the producers coupled with longer period of delivery. The premium on Suzuki Mehran CNG ranges between Rs100,000 and Rs125,000, followed by Cultus Rs100,000, and Alto between Rs80,000 and Rs100,000.

The premium on Toyota Corolla petrol XLI is Rs150,000-180,000, while on the diesel version it ranges between Rs190,000 and 200,000. Coure CNG has Rs105,000-125,000 premium, Honda VTI Rs110,000-145,000, Honda City and Rs110,000-125,000, and Hyudai Santro has Rs65,000-95,000 premium.