LAHORE, Sept 11: Industries and Production Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen will meet local car assemblers in Islamabad on September 17 to discuss with them the issue of production and premium.

"We need to face the issue of premium on new cars quickly. My message for automobile assemblers is that we will do everything in our power to strengthen and facilitate them and the vendors. But the premium being charged on new cars is unacceptable for the government," Tareen told a news conference on Saturday at the Smeda headoffice.

However, he hastened to add, "it does not mean that we'll open the floodgates (of imported cars)". "We would ask them to suggest a solution to the problem. We don't want to rush into it, but I must make it clear that the premium being charged on the new cars is not acceptable," he said.

UREA: The minister said the government had also decided to import up to 250,000 tons of urea for the Rabi crops in view of possible shortage of the fertilizer during wheat sowing season. A summary, he added, for the import of first consignment of 100,000 tons was already prepared and is being sent to the ECC for approval.

"If need arise, we would import more urea after the arrival of the first consignment," he said and added the imported fertilizer would reach Pakistan before December.

He said "the government had assessed that the urea consumption in the country had overtaken its local production and there was a possibility of its shortage during the wheat sowing season".

Hence the government has decided to import up to 250,000 of fertilizer, he said. He said the government had also decided to subsidize the price of imported urea and its price in the local market wouldn't be allowed to rise. He said a private company had already been in the process of setting up a new urea manufacturing plant in the Mari Gas Field. He said the company had also imported machinery.