What Would It Mean For Pakistani Car Industry If Gwadar Port Becomes Duty-Free

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This is the moment, every petrol head is loving the Prime Minister Sahab of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

“I request all parties to sit with us and give Gwadar the status of a free port and make a new administrative system for it.”

Yes, you read that right, according to the news, PM Nawaz Shareef has declared his thoughts on making the Gwadar Port duty free. This means, the Mercedes you have been dreaming of, which you couldn’t afford at the multiple times of its cost, can be yours for its original price (just add the transportation charges).

IF this is really happening, there’s nothing more beautiful than getting your dream car. Pakistan will eventually be full of almost all the exotics we’ve seen in the world. The Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s you’re limited to see on Top Gear, they can be yours too, but let me show you the dull side of this scenario.

Too much exports of cars in a country means, no one would buy a local car. I would wait the 60 day delivery time of a baseline Mercedes C180, rather than waiting 90 days for an Altis Grande. This means, the market of an Altis Grande would die. No one would want that. In 2.5 million PKR, you could get a lot of German saloons.

All this means what? It means, killing the local market. And yes, us being the consumers of there locally manufactured cars have our grievances against local car makers, but killing the local industry is not the answer. What about all the people associated to them? What about all the employees? What about their families? Killing the industry means letting all those people go. Yes, more imported cars mean far more opportunities in the automotive industry, but that will take time. Until the revival of the auto industry, the gap it’s going to create can be very dangerous for a majority of workers related with this industry.

This might sound fine in the long run, but in the short run, this isn’t the most feasible decision to take. Increased imports means lower GDP and higher inflation; which means bad economy.

via Tribune

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22 Comments
  1. Rana Mohammad Talha Tariq says

    They should reduce the Import Duties(Taxes) which are very high right now !

  2. usman niazi says

    with this the local cars would get cheaper…wouldn’t they? and there is a HUGE market for the rollas and civics and other ones after they have been used up for 5 years in the big cities… the small towns and cities all across pakistan who like having cars registered in the big cities due to some reason… i always wondered where all the old cars go with lahore registered numbers… i went back to my home town in mianwali to see it full of those cars which are all islamabad or lahore registered and older models… with this reduction in prices of local cars, those small cities can start having them as they will not buy anything other than a rolla for the roads(really needed for them roads as no car can bear that amount of potholes)… with this duty free port, the trade is gonna sky rocket, which india won’t be happy with so keep the expectations lowered… something hinky will surely be coming our way…

  3. Kashif Malim says

    Actually, these car-makers (read: crap-makers) would have to start making real cars, and would have to start selling them at logical and sane price points. I’m wondering why both of your posts (that I’ve read) are in favor of these idiotic crap-makers.

  4. Faraz Shah says

    F**k those local manufacturing cars the monopoly of 3 are going to end soon inshallah they giving us crap teen dabba in the price tag of mercedes manufacturing teen dabba mehran since 1886 there is no.changing in shape jst changed the grills nd headlight ahaha nd the fool people who buy them govt should have to take necessary action against them feeling happy to hear about duty free now i can buy prius in tje price of rolla 🙂

  5. Aamir Bashir says

    With the word duty free what in mind clicks : much newer cars coming into the country, low emission, great quality + safety features, reasonable prices, less pollution, happy faces, V8’s roarings, V6’s screechings, l4 rollings, l6 shunnings … what more we want … industries booming, Competition rising … Dreaming accomplising lolzzz well lets see what happens

  6. Awes Ahmed Khan says

    Dude, taking anything out of the free zone would mean that you will have to pay complete duty on it. Declaring the Gawadar Port a duty free area will mean great economic activity for trade and industry inside the free zone and that’s about i

  7. a Pakistani says

    Please do not jump the Gun quickly. If everything is duty free as the name suggests than country would certainly suffer in terms of revenue. The Karachi port would be dead as even Karachities would import items on Gawader. There would be certain rules and strings attached

  8. Usman says

    Really disappointed to see a pointless article just because the writer does not know what duty free port means and how it works.
    Dude you can’t take out anything from the port zone. If you do then you have to pay duties.

  9. Farooq Khan says

    Clearly writer does not know what the Prime Minister is suggesting. Rather than dreaming of duty free cars, he should be focusing more on the implications of making gwadar a free zone. What PM suggested was to make like Jabal Ali Free Zone in Dubai where an area of Dubai is designated as free zone and anything imported in that area only is duty free as long as it stays there. For example, any car imported from Japan to Dubai in Jabal Ali free zone is duty free. As soon as the car is taken out of the free zone 3% duty is to be paid and all the rules and regulations required for the car import to Dubai are applied. A RHD car can be imported in Jabal Ali Free Zone for re export to Pakistan but that car cannot be taken out of the Free Zone even if 3% duty is paid because RHD is not allowed on Dubai road.
    So making Gwadar a free zone would not have any negative affect on local car industry. Rather it would be beneficial for the economy. Moreover so many other articles beside cars can be imported in Free Zone which would increase trade.

  10. Muhammad Abdul Qadoos says

    LOL
    You have wasted my 5 mints. I am going to sue you

  11. Muhhammad Junaid Ali Kiani says

    Hosh k naakhun lo bhai, do a little research. Pakwheels has a reputation, do not ruin it. Do you even screen the articles before publishing?

  12. Fahad Javed says

    You Idiot, duty free means that within that zone there won’t be any duty. The duty will be paid when the car is taken out of the duty free zone. The implication of this is that a product, say cotton yarn, can be imported without taxes in the duty free zone processed into garments and shipped to some other country without adding any addition duty cost. If it is brought into Pakistan then the standard set of duties apply. The benefit will be increase in trade, jobs and indirect govt income through income taxes and services.

  13. Zak says

    Okay so you got the concept of “Duty Free” wrong …but I love your enthusiasm. Yes in a world where you could buy cars at their actual prices and not at highly inflated prices ….we would all probably prefer these imported cars. About the part where local industry would die out….that is a concern that we should also look into. Some govt official recently mentioned that local car manufacturers are actually over charging customers by Rs.500,000 per unit ( i think i read this on the article about VW coming to Pak). If that is the case, local industry needs to get its priorities right. If people are not employed in this industry, they will find employment elsewhere….like repair and maintenance of imported cars….local spares manufacturing etc….but this is no excuse for local manufacturers to keep hoodwinking the people of Pakistan by supplying inferior, low option, outdated engine cars at high prices….that too after a considerable waiting period.

    In today’s world….its shape up or ship out!!

  14. hammad says

    spot on

  15. Ch Ahmed Johal says

    Zak (y)

  16. muizz says

    what a fantacy

  17. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    if local car assemblers want to survive, they should start by improving the quality and upping the specs of the cars so that they are value for the money people pay them. At present, I’d say they deserve it.

  18. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    so it would mean that, if we import 1800cc car, we’ll have to pay taxes and duties upto 117% (according to the custom duties chart) as soon as we take it out of that zone?

  19. Abdul Khan says

    Local car manufacturers have bcom mafia they need to improve quality… just take the example of suzuki mehran… price is around 7 hundred thousand is it justified for that tin dabba body? Don’t know much about cars… but I think it’s clearly sort of monopoly… govt shud also reduce taxes…

  20. Taimur Hassan Qayum says

    Mehran is World’s toughest, and most strongest hatchback car in the world. vitz, passo are nothing as compared to strength and power ful engine of this car…. Rough and tough car is the only suzuki mehran… Idiot people dislike mehran…. New mehran gives avg of 21km/litre

  21. affan hussain says

    Oh gosh…….you are the only man who defends this stereotypes fuckin mehran which is intehai chutaype ki car in fact it is a stain on the name of a Car …..

  22. affan hussain says

    My friends don’t forget this is Pakistan where everybody lives in Damocles either you are rich or not where our ancestors had build everything with their own sources and we are continuing this convention yet nothing they got from Govt. or even we have…… either in era of democracy rules or Marshal’s Law…….so be selfish and cross your fingers to get duty free rides 😀

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