Though import of Indian tractors is banned in Pakistan, one of the companies which had been given permission to import duty-free tractors, is reportedly bringing Indian tractors "Farmtrac" through Dubai.
The Escort Group of India created the brand for their tractors, prior to the use of Farmtrac. Escorts built tractors for Ford, but in 1998, the tractor giant purchased long agribusiness in the United States and used it to import Farmtrac line.
The federal government had allowed four companies to import 10,000 tractors duty-free to bridge demand-supply gap. However, at one stage, some extraordinary concessions were given to the companies with the approval of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.
Sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday that the price of 'Farmtrac' in the United States was between $10,000-15,000, which means its rate in Pakistan would be above Rs 0.6 million, but the market price in Pakistan was not more than Rs 0.45 million.
The company, whose name has not been disclosed, was importing tractors from India via Dubai where the price was substantially less than Pakistan.
The sources also said another company claimed that it would assemble Belarus tractors locally in association with the Minsk Tractor Works, a company of Belarus.
However, when the company refused to confirm the agreement about tractors assembling in a correspondence, the Pakistani company replaced the agreement with a Ukraine-based tractor manufacturing firm UMZ.
The sources said the Industries Ministry did not care for the replacement of agreement due to political influence.
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