Lifting ban on car import only way to bring down exorbitant prices: Shahzad

KARACHI: Ban on import of the used cars and the levy of heavy duties have hiked automobile prices across Pakistan making the commodity an unaffordable luxury for even the middle-income class of the country.

Talking exclusively to ARY News morning show Bakhabar Savera, head of Car Dealers Association of Pakistan S M Shahzad said the price of cars previously available for Rs10 to -12 lacs, been made expensive by about a million rupees.

Those cars are not available below Rs18 to -20 lacs prices today. Shahzad said despite the continuous devaluation of the dollar against local rupee the automobile prices have not been brought down which makes it impossible for the middle-income class families to think of getting a car.

He said even the spare parts of automobiles have become a headache due to continuously hiking prices.

If the government lifts the ban from car imports and allows competitors to enter the market, the exorbitant hike in prices, which Shahzad attributed to this embargo, will break and prices will come back to the normal level.

Notwithstanding ridiculously inflated prices of automobiles now, said Shahzad, the quality of the cars available is not up to the mark and even safety features for safeguarding passengers amid accidents are inadequate.

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In cars worth Rs2 to -2.5 million you will not find airbags, he lamented adding that to customize airbags, the consumers have to separately pay over Rs200,000 more while, he compared, in Japan, even decades-old cars come with two airbags.

He noted that in the year 2018 when car import was still allowed, some 84,000 cars were brought in the country sweeping in the revenue of Rs1 billion for the government.