- Industry stalwart says Punjab govt’s recommendation to allow tax-free import of used tractors is completely in contrast to the centre’s export-friendly policies
ISLAMABAD: At a time when the local tractor industry was going through its worst-ever period in terms of sales and production, the import of used tractors would further hamper the industry, said Al-Ghazi Tractors Ltd Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Shahid Hussain in a statement on Monday.
“The import of used tractors will result in massive unemployment as the strong and sturdy tractor industry would be wiped out of the country,” he stated, referring to the Punjab government’s recent recommendation of allowing tax-free import of up to five years old tractors.
“This comes as a surprise as it’s a complete contradiction to the policies of the federal government,” he said, adding that the last 4-5 months were the worst for the local tractor industry as it witnessed a massive slow down, leading to considerable non-utilization of capacity.
“So, the annexation of used imported tractors in Pakistan would bring many ramifications for the local tractor industry as well as for the national economy,” Hussain reasoned.
He said the import of used tractors would result in the outflow of foreign exchange reserves; local industry’s contribution to exchequer (currently at approximately Rs4.5 billion) would get marginalized.
“Local parts manufacturing industries will be badly affected as tractor assembly involves 90pc locally-manufactured components,” he noted.
Hussain said that tractor is a vital machine for the farmers and Pakistani tractors have proven their reliability as even 20-25-year-old models were still operational in the fields. “This is because there is no dearth of spare parts and excellent after sales service provided by the manufacturers throughout Pakistan.”
Therefore, he said, if used tractors enter the Pakistani market, the issue of spare parts would haunt the farmers while used tractors from all over the world would make it difficult to arrange spare parts for each variant.
“Another big issue for farmers and dealers would be regarding the quality, availability, compatibility, and warranty of the imported tractors,” he said.
All in all, he added, it would be a complete counterproductive exercise that would bring nothing but risking the livelihoods of the poor farmers.
It is pertinent to mention that there are more than four tractor manufacturers in Pakistan, operating on an aggregate of less than 50pc capacity.
The CEO stated that currently, with technical help from renowned foreign manufacturers, high-quality agricultural tractors, with a variety of working capacity, were being produced in the country.
“Tractors manufactured/assembled in Pakistan are by far the most economical as compared to the rest of the world and this advantage will suffer instantly is they are to compete with secondhand imported tractors,” Hussain said.
He hoped that this move would be blocked in the wider interest of the local industry, farmers, a huge number of vendors and people-related to this field.
Local assembled tractors are worst in quality and fuel consumption these days , specially after 2012 , i sold my 2011 model old tractor and purchased same in brand new tractor but it was a piece of junk. It was well known in market 375 tractor. New one was bad in quality , it was faulty and fuel consumption was more than worst in comparison to the old one .
its very important to import tractors…local tractor industry producing poor quality tractors…so it is good decion to import…i m farmer. ..we appreciate to import tractors…good.v good
I appreciate this policy of govt to facilitate poor farmers bcz Pakistani tractor manufacturers are increasing the price of tractors day by day with poor quality materials of tractors
How will you find the spare parts of the imported tractors also don’t forget they won’t come with any warranty or guarantee. Good luck in getting the parts for it.
Very good decision
Local manufacturers are greedy and just want to loot poor farmers
Lol! Then when the currency dips down to 150 and 160 then don’t blame the government chutiye uneducated peoples.