The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Productions has directed the concerned ministry to take solid measures against the illegal business in the auto industry known as premium or On-Money.
The Senate Committee on Industries and Production met on Friday under the chairpersonship of Senator Khalida Ateeb here at the Parliament Lodges to take briefing on the role and functions of the Engineering Development Board with particular references to the aims and objectives of its establishment as delineated on its terms of reference.
The committee which met here on Friday was informed by the Engineering Development Board (EDB) on the question of own money on car bookings and purchase raised by Senator Dr. Asif Kirmani that in case of failure in the delivery of car within 60 days of the booking, the purchaser can claim back the own money payment as well as can impose a 3 percent plus Kibor fine.
It was further informed that the purchaser has to pay only 20 pc of the total price of the car at the time of booking. On the point of standardization and quality of production and parts of the auto-mobiles the committee was informed that the accessories of Honda Company are locally manufactured affecting the quality of products. It was further informed that the EDB has no role to play as a regulator or in the standardization of Production.
The Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) which is an autonomous body subordinate to the Ministry of Science and Technology has the mandate to regulate and enforce quality standards in Pakistan. The committee also showed concern over the procedure through which a car is cleared for road test and also inquired whether or not the procedure is counter checked by another authority other than the company itself. The committee also raised questions from the EDB on the delayed delivery time of the automobiles.
During the meeting the officials of EDB while giving briefing to the committee apprised that the EDB was established in 1995. The Federal Cabinet re-constituted the Board of Management (BoM) of EDB in Feb 2019 which has 06 members from Government and 12 Twelve private members representing leading engineering sectors. The committee was briefed on some of the policy and regulatory functions it performs including, secretariat automotive Industry Development and export Committee (AIDEC) under AIDEP 2021-26, secretariat for the Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy and focal point for engineering industry inputs for annual Budget and Competitiveness exercise ( Tariff and Taxes Rationalization ). It was also informed that in addition to a policy formulation role, EDB is the lead organization for implementation of various government regulations for industry facilitation, including determination of price preference to be accorded, under import of engineering Goods (Control) Order, 2001 .
The EDB officials further apprised the committee that the importance of the role assigned to EDB can be gauged from the fact that the engineering industry is the largest sector of trade in the world. In 2020, out of total global trade of $17.3 trillion, 56 percent or $9.7 trillion was of engineering goods.
It was further informed that Auto Development Policy was successfully concluded in June 2021 in which 21 companies were awarded Greenfield status, whereas under the Mobile device Development Policy approved in June 2020, 31 licenses have been issued by PTA in 2020-21 and major internationals companies like Samsung, Nokia, VIVO OPPO, XIAomi, Tecno , infinix etc have invested and started local manufacturing /assembly In Pakistan. Local assembly of mobiles reached to about 24.66 million during 2021 and commercial imports of CBU units are decreasing rapidly.
The committee was also apprised of the Auto Industry Development and Export Policy (AIDEP 2021-26) which gave incentives to the auto sector under Auto Industry Development and Export Policy (AIDEP 2021-26). It was informed that all taxes are removed on locally manufactured cars up to 1000cc (meri gari scheme). The prices of locally manufactured cars have also been brought down (above 1000 cc) through reduction of FED by 2.5 percent on each category of cars /SUVs /LCVs.
The meeting was attended by Senators Fida Muhammad, Hidayat Ullah, Dr. Asif Kirmani, Mohammad Abdul Qadir, and Senator Shaheed Khalid Butt. Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production, CEO Engineering Development Board and other senior officers were also in attendance.
