Commerce Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir has said that the import of used cars will be made transparent in the Auto Policy. "A final draft of new Auto Policy has been shared with Commerce Ministry but our view is very clear that the entire regime of gift schemes which we believe is an underhanded way of second hand cars should be made transparent," he said in an exclusive chat with Business Recorder.
Chairman Privatisation Commission, Muhammad Zubair is now in the driving seat of new Auto Policy and is in talks with the auto sector which is the key stakeholder. The entire local auto sector is pressing the policymakers to put restrictions on import of used cars under different schemes. However, the policymakers have not yet made any commitment on this sensitive issue. Commerce Minister who has also held a couple of meetings with the auto sector including spare parts manufacturers, acknowledged that Commerce Ministry's cars import schemes are being misused and efforts are underway to do away with them.
"This is an indirect way in which dealers procure passports from overseas Pakistanis to import cars in their names, and this should be finished. If we ultimately decide that import of second hand cars should continue, it should be open and on commercial basis along with extraordinary taxes," he added. According to the Minister the Ministry's main proposal is that the Auto Policy should be devised in a way that it should revive existing automobile capacity and attract fresh manufacturers' investment in the country so that new investors start manufacturing cars in the country.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar at a recent meeting held in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) approved the Auto Policy. The meeting was attended by the Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asif (convenor of ECC committee), Muhammad Zubair, Chairman PC, Tariq Bajwa, Chairman FBR and secretaries of concerned ministries.
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