lahore -  salman abduhu -


There have been 25 major changes by the govt in auto policy in the country during last five years which hamper the growth in the industry, creating uncertainty due to which the industry is compelled to pull off expansion plans and further investments while introduction of new models and research and development also gets a hit.
With the least possible measures of calculation the auto industry experts believe that the much trumpeted amnesty scheme has caused a loss of Rs 15 billion to national exchequer.
They said that as per the calculations if 51000 vehicles were to be assembled in the country, regular taxes/ revenues on an average would have crossed Rs 25 billion. Currently the car makers are producing vehicles from 800cc to 1800cc in cars category while 2500cc mini truck is also being made which is very close to most of the smuggled categories.
The car manufacturers pay on average a duty of $5000 including 16pc GST, on every car if calculated combined from 800 to 2500cc. For example, SUV being made in Pakistan pays over Rs 0.7 million as GST; in addition custom duty is paid separately which takes the total duty to beyond Rs 1.2 million per vehicle. Also the average duty on luxury vehicles like Civic, Altis, Premios is Rs 0.7 million per unit. This makes a staggering figure of Rs 25 billion that FBR would have collected. The automobile manufacturer, assemblers and dealers have urged the government not to allow transfer of ownership to vehicles cleared under amnesty scheme recently.
The sudden and huge influx of vehicles from porous borders has exposed connivance behind the scheme and that the ultimate loser is the national exchequer which has robbed off huge amount of money besides having a devastating impact on local industry and sheer disappointment for the regular and honest taxpayers, they said.
They demanded of the government to put a ban on transfer of ownership on these vehicles of at least three years so that the scheme remains in the parameters of tax collecting stunt, though even that is questionable.
They said that currently these vehicles continue to be traded in the market freely thus reflecting badly and exposing short sightedness of our planners while the documented industry which already suffered recently due to used cars import, continues to remain under utilised heavily taxed and continuously betrayed over the continuity of the policies.