National Assembly panel rejects ECC decision
[HR][/HR] National Assembly panel rejects ECC decision
December 05, 2012
RECORDER REPORT
The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance on Tuesday rejected the decision of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of Cabinet regarding reduction in the age limit of used imported cars. The Committee, which was presided over by Khwaja Sohail Manzoor, expressed serious concern about the transparency in the decision recently taken by the ECC and recommended to the Commerce Ministry not to issue a notification for the implementation of the decision regarding the reduction in the age limit of imported used cars from five to three years.
The Chairman and members of the Committee agreed that the decision was taken in haste without a proper homework, and the decision was not in the public interest, but benefited a few assemblers. Members of MQM said that the Deputy Prime Minister's decision would cost the common man and the national economy would suffer heavily.
A representative of the Commerce Ministry said that they had proposed for carrying out a study by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and National Tariff Commission (NTC) to ascertain market conditions before taking any decision. The Ministry for Industry did not wait for the study report and moved a summary to the ECC apparently to benefit three car assemblers at the cost of general public and the national economy, committee members agreed.
Subsequently, the committee recommend to the commerce Ministry not to issue notification for reduction in age limit of used cars and wait for the study report of the CCP and NTC. The members of the committee were furious on the decision and stated that the assemblers have influenced the policy makers to get decision in their favour. A member of the committee, Abdul Rashid Gondal said: that car assemblers did not want any competition, adding that they were managing their affairs with the support of the Engineering Development Board (EDB) and the Ministry of Industry.
"Thee auto sector assemblers have influenced the policy whenever they wanted to," remarked the chairman of the committee. Officials of Ministry of Industry and especially EDB had no answers to such harsh criticism. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the EDB admitted that vehicles in India were 37% cheaper than Pakistan and the cost of vehicle in Pakistan was higher because of rupee-yen parity, high input cost and other factors.
The committee members said that the used cars were much better in terms of quality than locally-assembled cars. Representatives Ministry of Industries were unable to respond to queries about the purpose of the Auto Sector Development Plan-II when the Auto Industry Development Plan (AIDP-I) was not implemented yet. The officials of EDB admitted that the AIDP was not yet fully implemented. The committee directed the Ministry of Industry and the EDB to reappear before the panel after seven days with complete details about the cost of manufacture, tariff relief and the amount of premium charged on each vehicle.