APMDA disappointed at draft of auto policy

Says it favours local assemblers and penalises used cars segment

KARACHI:

The All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA) on Wednesday has called the proposed draft of the auto policy “a huge disappointment”, saying that it continues to favour local assemblers, while those who are stakeholders in the used cars segment continue to bear the brunt.

“The draft of the new auto policy does not contain anything new for the used car sector. However, contrary to expectations, the policy heavily favours to local automobile assemblers,” APMDA Chairman H M Shahzad said in a press release on Wednesday.

After a delay of over three years, Engineering Development Board (EDB) has recently uploaded the draft of Automotive Development Policy (ADP) 2015-20 on its website.

The draft is yet to be presented in the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for approval.



In response to the draft, APMDA wrote a letter to the Engineering Development Board (EDB), showing complete disappointment on the development.

Shahzad said that the government should allow commercial import of vehicles, which would spur competition with local auto assemblers.

“Once again, the government is giving too much incentive to the local auto assemblers who have always resorted to price increase.”

In the first week of this month, the government increased regulatory duty on imported used cars above 1,000cc engine by 10%.

Car importers - who give a tough time to local car assemblers - say the increase was unjust because the government did not change the duty structure on new imported cars or Completely Built Units (CBUs).

However, local carmakers say that the new duty structure will not hit used car imports because most of them fall in the category below 1,000CC. The import duty on cars up to 1,000cc was not changed by the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.

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