ISLAMABAD – Indus Motor Company’s (IMC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ali Asghar Jamali has stressed the need to increase taxes on used imported cars to support the local auto industry.
CEO of the manufacturer of Toyota cars held meetings with the Federal Minister for Finance, Industries and the chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to give proposals for the upcoming budget. He said an increase in duties and taxes on used cars has been suggested in the upcoming budget to benefit the local auto industry from the slightly improved economic activity, stable currency and a likely cut in interest rates.
Jamali said that the industry expected significant improvement in demand for local cars from January 2024. But it did not happen due to the import of used cars, he said, adding that a slight improvement of about 28 per cent was recorded in the sale of local cars. However, the imports of used cars recorded over 711 per cent increase in February alone, against the same period last year. He said that the vendors’ industry would be forced to close down if the prevailing trend continued.
He said that the local auto industry has invested about $ 2.5 billion and contributed about Rs400bn in taxes in FY2022 alone. He said that the auto industry provided about 2.5 million direct and indirect job opportunities. He said that the newly launched hybrid electric vehicle – Toyota Corolla Cross’ first quarter performance has been satisfactory. Toyota Corolla Cross has the highest percentage of localised parts in this category, which is over 50 per cent.
He said that acceptance of auto industry proposals will help increase FBR revenue by Rs80 billion.
