Government allows import of five-year-old buses

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

KARACHI: The government has extended the age limit in a SRO issued May 16, 2011 for import of used buses and trucks up to five years under gift and personal baggage scheme.

It has also allowed commercial import of upto 3-year-old buses, just one month before announcement of federal budget.

Hundreds of reconditioned commercial vehicles are expected to be imported in coming days, which are neither fit for present road conditions in Pakistan nor can be utilised for long-term.

There is no mechanism or law in place to properly regulate the commercial vehicles’ import with its fitness check, environment and road safety, resultantly the old buses are plied for decades on roads and highways despite of their dilapidate and poor conditions, analysts in auto industry said. They said the relaxation in bus import policy would directly impact local manufacturers of commercial vehicles who have invested billions of rupees to bring expensive technology and processing units in the country. Besides, it would affect the demand and production of local auto parts.

Pakistani roads are overrun with extremely old, out of order and unfit vehicles of 70s era. Besides, vehicles designed for off road usage are being plied on national highways (e.g of dumpers), which are imported under various exemptions.

The manufacturing of local buses and commercial vehicles is already very slow in the country with flat growth particularly during the last couple of years. The highest production of buses was marked in 2004-05 when 1,762 buses were produced locally which has fallen to only 628 buses in 2009-10 and the production continues to decline rapidly.

Similarly, locally made cars saw the highest peak of production of 160,642 units in 2005-06, which has substantially decline to 111,106 units in 2009-10. Other vehicles’ variants also show more or less the same figures of declining production, statistics revealed.

The reconditioned buses will replace the locally made new buses, which will ultimately result in decline of production of local bus manufacturers as already been happening to car manufacturers.

Local manufacturers of cars and buses design their vehicles keeping the geographical and road structure of the country in mind while ensuring that the vehicle can run for a longer period of time and complying with environmental protection and road safety. The government should withdraw forthwith the SRO issued to allow up to five-year-old used cars and buses otherwise the decision will destroy the local auto manufacturers and spare-parts’ makers