Business

Long overdue: Auto policy tabled for approval

Manufacturers required to comply with international safety standards

APP August 05, 2015

The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production. PHOTO: APP

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production on Wednesday was informed that the Ministry of Industries and Production has tabled a long-overdue automobile policy to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet for formal approval.

“Under the new policy, the auto manufacturers in the country would be required to meet international standards of safety including introducing airbags and anti-locking braking system (ABS) even in 800cc vehicles,” Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production Muhammad Arif Azeem informed the committee.

He further said that currently, car manufacturers had no restrictions over safety measures, but would be bound to meet minimum international measures after the policy is approved. Regarding the Ramazan package at utility stores, the secretary informed the meeting that the government provided a subsidy of Rs1.328 billion.

The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Senator Hidayatullah, questioned the quality of the commodities and urged the ministry to further improve items.

Additionally, the committee recommended promoting and expanding the network of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) to boost business activities for more job creation.

Smeda’s acting CEO said the organisation had very limited resources with a total annual budget of only $92 million.

Comparatively, he said, in Japan, a similar organisation had a total annual budget of $10 billion.

“Pakistan has immense potential in various fields but due to lack of resources, policies and commitment, huge chunk of the resources go to waste,” Senator Taj Haider said.

If Smeda is given more resources, it could help encouraging private entrepreneurship to exploit the potential of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2015.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.

COMMENTS (7)

Atif | 9 years ago | Reply It is a step in the right direction but it is important to insure the following as well:- Modern Emission standards (Euro V) must be implemented as local cars do not meet international emission standards and there is no export potential for them right now. (as they cannot be legally sold in most countries) In addition to life saving airbags, immobilizer should also be mandatory. There needs to be a limit on how long a particular car model can be sold. Cars like mehran, bolan, ravi, and cultus have already caused technological stagnation in the country and made the industry inefficient. Upgrading and transfer of new technology to pakistani vendors/industry by their Japanese parents should be mandatory. Illegal practices of dealers/OEMs to create artificial shortages – so that PREMIUM/OWN can be charged – must be dealt with severity. Incentives must be given to encourage new investment in country. Government should give huge contracts (such as taxi schemes, etc) to new players instead of Paksuzuki, etc. If competition is there prices will reduce automatically and industry will become efficient benefiting the consumer.

Muhammad Siddiq | 9 years ago | Reply No respite for the consumer. Car(tel) manufacturers would increase prices on the pretext of installing safety measures. People brace yourself for Mehran going to 0.8 million. Sighhhhh

VIEW MORE COMMENTS

Gullu | 9 years ago | Reply @abc: There is none. The market is too small for indigineous production.

abc | 9 years ago | Reply where is indigenous production? i mean made in pakistan not assembled in pakistan.

Atif | 9 years ago | Reply That's a good step. No more exploitation from these auto manufacturers. They must also be forced not to dump obsolete vehicles with ancient technology that are not sold anywhere else outside pakistan i.e mehran, bolan, ravi, cultus, swift, and liana.

Gullu | 9 years ago | Reply They should require that cars meet minimum emissions standards as well so that we migrate to more fuel efficient cars instead of the 70s tech that gets sold here. Japanese kei cars use half the fuel that local assembled ones do. That should tell you how far behind we are.

Woz ahmed | 9 years ago | Reply Incredible , the Great Leap Forward in our auto policy is to ask the global companies assembling in Pakistan to meet minimum international standards, why wasn't this a minimum requirement when they set up here, instead of allowing them to produce sub standard cars, with no export potential ? Also if Smeda can make such a huge difference to the country , they should know there is no shortage of resources, but we choose to spend them on a showpiece imported buses and $5 billion in submarines. Does anyone wonder why our economy and exports are in so much trouble ?

Replying to X