The amnesty scheme announced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for regularisation of non-duty paid smuggled vehicles may not create a negative impact on domestic production; said Parvez Ghais, the CEO Indus Motor Company (IMC) Ltd. Talking to visiting journalists at IMC plant designated to produce the recently launched 'Toyota Fortuner', he said that although the local auto industry was not in favour of the government initiative, it would not affect domestic production.
He said that authorities during a recent meeting were keen to announce the five-year Automobile Industrial Policy (AIP) in the next two months. Stressingd the need for a comprehensive policy to cater the demand of an economy car in Pakistan, he said: "A Lahore-based automobile company is striving to introduce Chinese vehicles in Pakistan and the government has to come up with a comprehensive policy in this regard."
The CEO of IMC further said that the imposition of 0.5 per cent turnover tax on the automobile industry had restricted the company's ability to supply its products to dealers at wholesale rates. Urging the authorities concerned to reduce turnover tax to facilitate the automobile sector, he said that the rate of turnover tax imposed on motorbike industry and tobacco sectors were just 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively.
Answering a question, he said that an earlier plan to launch Toyota Fortuner had not materialised because of the prevailing law and order situation. He further said that Toyota Fortuner had been designed as an icon of status, power and confidence and the affordability to buy Toyota Fortuner was quite limited. Therefore, he said, the company would not produce Toyota Fortuner more than 2,500 per annum. The Toyota Fortuner, which is available at Rs 5.2 million in the market, is built on the Toyota Hilux pick-up truck platform with three rows of seats, four-wheel drive, projection headlamps and others features.
Comments
Comments are closed.