Prices of imported vehicles go up 14%: Local assemblers

PAMADA urges govt to revise import duties in the wake of rupee depreciation.

KARACHI: In the wake of the decision used cars’ age limit cut, the dealers of used cars imports increased the prices of five-year old cars up to 14%, according to the Automobile Manufacturers and Assemblers Dealer Association (PAMADA).

According to the market survey of more than ten used car dealers including the auction price at Sohrab Goth during the last two weeks, the used car dealers increased the price of Mira/Suzuki Kei up to Rs55,000.

The price of Vitz/Passo had also gone up by up to Rs80,000; Axio’s price increased up to Rs110,000; and Premio has seen a price increase of up to Rs160,000. The local car assemblers claim that these cars are already more expensive than local cars.

The PAMADA representative said that the local auto sector was urging the government to consider the strengthening of Japanese yen against the US dollar in the last few years and must revise used car duty slabs which were fixed in 2005.

Today, the disparity between the Japanese Yen and the US dollar is much lower. Yen-dollar parity was 120 in 2005, but since then the yen had strengthened and as of November 2012 it values 79 against the dollar. “This calls for a revision of used car duty slabs which were fixed in 2005,” he said.

The local auto industry representative also said that based on today’s value of the yen, the proposed duty slabs for vehicles up to 800c is $6,650 against the current fixed duty of $4,400 on a used car, which was fixed on the value of the yen in 2005.



Similarly, for vehicles of 801-1000cc, the proposed duty is $8,312 against the fixed current duty of $5,500; for 1001-1300cc the proposed duty is $16,625 against the current $11,000; for 1301-1500cc the proposed duty is $23,275 against fixed current duty of $15,400; for 1500-1600cc proposed duty slab is $28,262 against fixed current duty $18,700; and for 1601-1800cc the proposed slab is $26,184 against the current fixed duty of $23,100.

Iqbal Hussain Shah, vice president of PAMADA said now the need is that government should focus on revising duty slabs in order to stop the losses of billions of rupees revenues on used cars imports.

Shah said prices of locally assembled cars had been constant since the last six months.

While the dollar has touched new record high, local car assemblers were absorbing most of the cost impact.

The PAMADA rep did not clarify why the cost of a ‘local’ car is affected by rupee-dollar parity.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2012.