LAHORE – The decision of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to restrict import of more than three years old cars has been taken without the approval of Law Ministry, which makes this notification’s legal standing questionable.
These apprehensions were raised by the National Assembly’s standing committee on finance, which has expressed its serious reservations on issuance of the notification regarding restriction. As per sources, the Committee pointed out that the said notification cannot be issued until it is vet by the Ministry of Law.
Implementation of this decision is pivotal for local car assemblers, who are facing brunt of imports and thus curtailed demand of their variants due to stiff competition from imported cars. The stocks of INDU and PSMC jumped 6 per cent each while HCAR’s gained a massive 37 per cent since the ECC decision came in; outperforming the index by 4 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.
As per industry sources, the private importers were not pleased with the ECC decision and now they have submitted the facts and figures to the Parliament and the Senate Committee, including the ECC, regarding expected losses of government.