Please refer to a letter to the editor which appeared on Sunday 5th March 2006, titled 'Import of used cars," by Usman Haq. On behalf of Indus Motor Company, I would like to clarify that in order to reduce delivery periods, we have been continuously enhancing our production.
When we launched the new Corolla in March 2002, we were producing 57 cars/day and today we are producing about 185 cars/day. The company is doing its utmost to enhance production further by more investment, by working overtime, and by working closely with its vendors. Delivery times have reduced over the past two years and some models are available within one month.
The unprecedented demand for Toyota vehicles is because of their popularity and we are grateful to our customers for their preference. While we enhance production continuously, we regret that some customers have to wait.
But this is true for popular products that are in demand till production catches up and the demand-supply gap is closed. While we do take advance payment we also pay interest to customers whose delivery periods exceed two months.
Contrary to the import of used cars, local manufacturing provides substantial long-term benefits, both for the country as well as for consumers. Benefits to the country include employment of over 400,000 people, immense capital investment, technology transfer, self-reliance and development of an engineering base, import substitution, forex savings, government revenues, contribution to GDP and the economy, documented transactions, etc.
Our customers get the benefit of 3S dealerships (with sales, service, and spare parts), warranties and good resale prices. Our locally manufactured vehicles conform to domestic road and driving conditions and fuel specifications.
As regards protection, India and Thailand, two major auto manufacturing countries in the region, are providing much greater protection to their local auto industry by higher duties, tariff and non-tariff barriers.
These countries have adopted a strategy to focus on growth through local manufacturing and not through imports of used cars that, as mentioned above, do not benefit the country or its consumers in the long term.
(The writer is Director Corporate Planning & Customer Relations, Indus Motors)