The government of Pakistan has barred non-filers to buy vehicles from 1 July 2018. The restriction was first announced in the budget 2018-19 speech, after that it was passed from National Assembly of Pakistan. It was being feared that local assemblers would face a huge sales hit due to this restriction as almost half of their buyers are non-filer. However, according to Dawn, as far as the production plan of local assemblers is concerned, it will not be changed until September.
While talking to the media, a spokesperson of IMC Toyota said that as of now there is no change in the production plan as the company has to clear the orders of customers for July and August. Senior Vice Chairman PAAPAM Mohammad Ashraf Shaik told a local media outlet that local assemblers so far has not shown any sign to drop procurement of parts and accessories, production plan of the automakers till September is same, he further added.
Read Also: Local assemblers suspend booking of cars for non-filers
IMC a few days back issued a public notice encouraging its buyers to change their status from non-filer to filer to avoid delivery delays or cancellations of vehicle orders.
Similarly, Pak Suzuki issued a directive, which reads as follow:
“Any application for booking, registration, or purchase of a new locally manufactured motor vehicle or first registration of an imported vehicle shall not be accepted or processed by any vehicle registering authority of Excise and Taxation Department or a manufacturer of a motor vehicle respectively unless the person is filer.”
After the non-filer proposal was accepted by National Assembly, it received a mixed reaction; some applauded the government’s decision while some showed their discontent CEO IMC being one of them.
CEO IMC Mr. Ali Asghar Jamali said that 60% of their buyers are non-filers and if they are barred from purchasing the car, the sales will drop sharply. This new condition or proposal doesn’t apply to used car buyers, he reiterated.
As per a local media outlet, IMC would produce 5,700, 4,600 and 5,100 units of Corolla for July, August and September respectively. Whereas Honda Pakistan would produce 1,900, 1,300 and 1,900 units of Honda Civic in July, August, and September. And lastly, Pak Suzuki would manufacture 4,800 units of Mehran in July and 4,000 units in August.
One can clearly see that the production plan of local assemblers is not changing till September, however, not changing the production plan doesn’t mean that the sales of assemblers will not take a hit as local automakers have halted booking of cars for non-filers from 22 May 2018.
The automakers are shipping the already booked orders of consumers for June and July, but for the consumer to get their hands on the car they need to be in the filer list, delivery will be halted if the buyer is non-filer. It is advised to become a filer to avoid any kind of awkwardness and hassle. There are many perks of being a filer as you can see in the below video:
That’s it from our side, drop your thoughts in the comments section below.
