The government has smashed an age-old myth "To keep car is a luxury" by allowing import of reconditioned cars.
These views were expressed by general public, particularly the users of old cars in the middle and upper-middle classes.
The pathetic condition of the general public facing acute transport problems had proved beyond any doubt that the import of old cars had become inevitable in the country.
Talking to Business Recorder, dealers in junk cars said that the recent report of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had played an important part in allowing the import of reconditioned cars.
The SBP in its recent quarterly report had said that the local car assemblers had failed to achieve the deletion programme. Despite failure, the car assemblers had been provided an unprecedented protection and they had kept the prices at a level which only the privileged class could afford.
According to reliable statistics, there are only 20,000 buyers of new cars assembled in Pakistan, among a population of 140 million.
Most of the buyers are those with ill-gotten wealth, business magnates, privileged class of landlords, Waderas, etc.
Besides, banks, DFIs, leasing companies, etc, are reported to have provided over Rs 4 billion to those willing to buy cars, which resulted in a boom of sales and the car assemblers were doing flourishing business.
It has put a negative impact on the economy and it has added to the import bill with almost all components being imported by the assemblers.
Market sources said that auto-part vendors in India meet the requirements of car manufacturers in that country, and similarly in Malaysia and Thailand; then why not in Pakistan? But the vendors in Pakistan are crying over their investment.
Sources said that whenever the government considered import of cars, the local assemblers have raised the plea that they would not allow the country to become the graveyard of the junk cars. But Pakistan is already a junkyard of cars, for example, taxis of 1970s! About 90 percent of the privately-owned cars on the roads of Pakistan were old, the sources said.
The prices of high quality cars, manufactured in foreign countries, were about of those assembled in Pakistan.
The sources said that it would be in the national interest if the import of cars was allowed with reasonable rate of duty. It would serve the purpose of the common man, and expose the unjust tariff protection provided to the local assemblers.