LAHORE: Almost all the domestic car assemblers have indulged in violation of deletion programme thus causing a loss of more than three billion rupees to the national exchequer.
According to a report, prepared by Customs officials of Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and referred to Engineering Development Board (EDB) for consideration, gross violation of deletion program, which have been detected in almost all the models of Honda while Suzuki is falling at the lowest level as its management has violated the government policy in only one Model - Baleno.
Should these parts have been imported under the commercial tariff country may has earned revenue of around Rs3.4 billion, insiders told The News. However, these parts were being imported under the concessional tariff despite the fact that they had been deleted from subsidised tariff import list, sources added.
In the last meeting of EDB held at Islamabad, the newly appointed chairman of EDB had reportedly informed the members that he had successfully taken up the issue with CBR chief and there would be no penal action against any of the violators. However, the claim was never conceded nor rebutted by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) as its Chairman Kanwar Idrees was not available to comment despite frequent attempts on his phone.
Leading luxury car manufacturers Honda has topped in violating its deletion schedule, as its management has alleged for violating the deletion in eight models.
It has violated deletion by 2.8329 per cent in Honda City EXi-S/DX-MT model, 2.8329 per cent in Honda City EXi-S/DX-AT model, 0.7420 per cent in Honda Civic EXi MT model, 1.1941 per cent in Honda Civic EXi AT model, 2.7974 per cent in VTi MT, 3.2496 per cent in Civic VTi AT, 2.7974 per cent in Civic VTi MT-SR, and 3.2496 per cent in Civic VTi AT-SR.
Similarly, Indus Motor, the makers of Toyota Corolla in the country have violated deletion in models XLi (1.9068 per cent), GLi (1.8368 per cent), 2.0D (2.0916 per cent), 2.0 D Saloon (1.9869 per cent), SE Saloon M/T (4.0754 per cent) and S E Saloon A/T model by (4.0754 per cent). There is also a violation of 0.7411 per cent in Daihatsu Coure, which is being assembled by the same company.
Dewan Farooque Motor has done the violations in Hyundai Santro Plus (6.1285 per cent), Kia Spectra (1.5155 per cent), and Kia Sportage (7.9711 per cent).
However, Pak Suzuki Motor Company Ltd has violated only 1.0273 per cent violation in Baleno model only.
The issue of violation was placed on the agenda of EDB in the meeting held on October 4, 2004 for proper solution instead of charging an amount of around Rs3.4 billion which was taken away from the tax kitty following the usage of imported parts through this violation of deletion programme submitted by these very companies to government.
However, the matter is still pending and stayed as agenda item number three as ‘Under invoicing/ Misdeclaration/ Smuggling’ till the last EDB meeting held in February 2005.