Senate Thursday expressed displeasure over non-implementation of Automotive Development Policy (2016-21) and recommended to the government to safeguard the interest of consumers. During question hour, Senator Mian Muhammad Ateeq Sheikh observed that there are no airbags in cars being manufactured by the Suzuki company and the company charges premium on urgent delivery of vehicles which makes the price of vehicle higher than its official retail price.
Senator Col Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Retd) alleged that Toyota company was charging full premium and making delivery in six months. He further said that four wheelers did not have security feature, including air bags.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab assured the senator that improvement was coming after the announcement of new auto policy.
Senator from KP challenged the information provided by Ministry of Finance regarding three-year tax exemption for war on terror victims of FATA and PATA. Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid said he would recheck the facts again.
Senate was also informed that the average annual increase in prices of 73 perishable items since July 2013 is 4.37 percent compared to food inflation of 5.14 percent.
Point of public importance, Taj Haider said that storage capacity of furnace oil was reduced due to unplanned import of LNG. He alleged that usage of furnace oil reduced from 18,000 ton daily to 8,000 tons daily as government was using LNG in power generation. He further said that as per previous agreements, government was importing furnace oil and 15 shipments had been waiting since long for berth to offload furnace oil.
Chairman Committee directed Ministry of Petroleum to answer in the Senate on Tuesday.