Turning profit: Transportation business revs up ahead of elections

Candidates spending large amounts on renting, buying vehicles.

FAISALABAD:

Amidst rising electioneering fever, candidates contesting the May 11 elections and their supporters have started hiring vehicles for their campaigns, giving a major boost to transportation businesses.

In Faisalabad district alone, aspirants are contesting over eleven seats of the National Assembly and 22 seats for the Punjab Assembly. Each seat will be fiercely fought over by dozens of candidates with varying political affiliations.

These candidates have now started hiring cars and vans to mobilise voters by extending their presence to far-flung constituencies, market sources say. This has provided a major boost to the transportation business.

Some candidates and their supporters have even bought imported used vehicles, ownership of which was legalised under a controversial tax amnesty scheme extended by revenue authorities. Such buyers prefer easily recognisable names with an established prestige, like Toyota’s Prado, Land Cruiser and Vigo 4x4s. These used imported vehicles cost anywhere between Rs1 million and Rs5 million.

Sources said the amnesty scheme on smuggled vehicles, which expired this month, has helped them meet the sudden surge in demand: thousands of such vehicles have been legally registered ahead of the elections under the scheme, they said.

On the other hand, for those candidates and supporters who prefer hiring their transport, car owners charge around Rs50-80,000 per month depending upon the make and model of the automobile. This is purely rental profit, as the cost of maintaining the vehicle and keeping it fuelled and ready is entirely the responsibility of the person who hires it. According to market sources, candidates and their supporters use dozens of vehicles at a time for their electioneering activities.

“The heavier, sturdier vehicles are nice and comfortable,” a candidate in Faisalabad told The Express Tribune. He did not wish to be named, fearing action from the Election Commission of Pakistan, which has placed an upper limit of Rs10 million for expenditures to be incurred by a candidate on campaigning for a provincial assembly seat.

An ancillary business is also flourishing side by side. Candidates recognise the importance of cheap publicity and transform their vehicles into moving signboards plastered with party posters and slogans. Businesses involved in panaflex printing have been inundated with orders for special paste-on posters for cars. The industry has even acquired a degree of sophistication: modern imported machines are being used to plaster vehicles with all kinds of political slogans.

Charges for a full-body job come to around Rs25,000 per vehicle, while pasting a sticker onto the rear windscreen costs around Rs2,000 per vehicle, according to Shakeel Ahmad, proprietor of Shangrila Flex System, Faisalabad.

He says his business has surged this month by around five times, giving him very handsome returns.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2013.