Car assemblers urged to bring an end to menace of black-marketing

An inter-ministerial committee headed by Additional Secretary (In-charge) Ministry of Industries, Mian Asad Hayaud Din Thursday called upon leading car assemblers on the issue of black marketing and long lead times of locally manufactured vehicles. The meeting was attended by representatives of Commerce Division, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industries and Engineering Development Board.
The additional secretary industries inquired about underlying reasons of premiums or own money on locally manufactured vehicles and what the leading assemblers are doing to curb this market malpractice along with reducing lead times. Sources privy to the meeting told Business Recorder that Indus Motor CEO Ali Jamali gave a comprehensive briefing to the committee about all the measures the IMC has taken up to discourage investors including cancellation of over 1,200 orders from potential investors, suspending authorized dealerships involved in malpractices, customer education press campaigns and enhancing production capacity by up to 20% to improve supply side commissioning by the second quarter of 2018.
Jamali briefed the committee how habitual investors in the market make multiple booking against single computerized national identity card (CNIC) and at times use dodgy corporate as front face to make multiple bookings; however, the IMC puts in its best efforts to scrutinize every order to distinguish between genuine customer and potential investor. All vehicles sold by the IMC and their delivery lead times by city are transparently displayed on company website and also at all of its dealership, he added.
He ensured the committee that the IMC remains committed to facilitating all genuine customers; however, he lamented that the government has not taken up the industry proposals for the implementation of dealer wholesale-retail mechanism which is a global best practice for vehicle sales and levying of Rs 100, 000-Rs 200, 000 transfer tax in case of any new vehicle is transferred within six to 12 months of its invoice date.
The additional secretary industries lauded the IMC efforts and directed the EDB to verify if other OEMs are also taking up similar measures in this respect. He also ensured that the ministry will take up all practical proposals in this respect to increase consumer welfare.