KARACHI: The auto dealers have asked the federal government to allow import of fiver-year-old used vehicles
All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA) Chairman HM Shahzad, in a letter to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, said the import of these vehicles would not only lead to an increase in documentation of the economy but would also generate 100 per cent more taxes for the government.
The demands were part of the budget proposals for fiscal year 2016-17. “It would also bring the import of used vehicles into the tax net and help the government expand its tax base,” said Shahzad. “We suggest that only certified members of the APMDA should be allowed to import used vehicles on commercial basis for the sake of transparency of trade.”
Targeting the local car assemblers, he said they were enjoying monopoly in the market, which allowed them to increase prices of their cars. “The promised deletion levels have also not been achieved despite the passage of many years.”
Shahzad also said the government should impose a fixed duty on the import of used vehicles of above 1,800cc as was the policy for vehicles up to 1,800cc, which were subject to a fixed rate of import duty.
This, he added, would help the government check the revenue loss suffered due to arbitrary fixing of import duty and would help eliminate tax variation at different ports of the country. In this case, the tax collection will go up.
The APMDA chairman pointed out that the amnesty scheme of March 2013 had resulted in regularising of 52,000 smuggled vehicles of all engine capacities without any restriction of age limit.
