Car makers ask customers to become tax-filers to avoid hiccups in vehicle delivery

KARACHI: Domestic automobile manufacturers have asked customers to become tax-filers to ensure they don’t face any hiccups in delivery or cancellation of orders.

And the domestic automobile manufacturers have stuck to their production plans till September 2018 despite worries they could lose 50-60 percent of non-filers as their customers of cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) from 1^st July, reported Dawn.

The previous PML-N led government in its budget announcement for the financial year 2018-19 had announced the barring of non-filers from purchasing domestically assembled cars from 1^st July 2018.

Honda, Suzuki and Toyota all have ended up taking the booking of vehicles from non-filers which includes corporate clients and individuals from last week of May.

Senior Vice Chairman PAAPAM Mohammad Ashraf Shaikh said parts and accessories procurement by Honda, Suzuki and Toyota hadn’t been impacted.

He added the assemblers’ production plans till September this year was more or less the same as far according to parts procurement provided to the vendors.

As per vendors, 4,300 units of Toyota Corolla are set to be produced in June, 5,700 units in July 4,600 in August and 5,100 in September.

And Honda Atlas Car Limited (HACL) is expected to produce 1,500 Honda City units in June, 2,700 units in July, 2,000 units in August and 1,900 units in September.

Assembling of Honda Civic models is projected to be 1,400 in June, 1,900 units in July, 1,300 units in August and 1,900 units in September.

The third Japanese automaker Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited (PSMCL) will assemble 3,200 units of Suzuki Mehran in June, 4,800 in July and 4,000 units for August.

Also, the Suzuki pickup production for June is projected to be 1,400 units, followed by 2,000 units in July and 1,700 units in August.

A spokesman for Indus Motor Company stated there were no slated revisions in production plan since the company needed to deliver pending orders in July and August.

He added the automobile industry had requested the government to provide an exemption to orders of non-filers which were placed before the restriction was put in place to ensure smooth delivery in July and August 2018.

Also, assemblers are said to have ramped parts and accessories imports on schedule which indicated increasing trend in the import of completely and semi-knocked down kits (CKD/SKD).

During July-April of the financial year 2017-18, imports of CKD/SKD grew to $655 million compared to $532 million from the same period last financial year.