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Disagreement on Vehicle Imports Sparks Conflict Between Assemblers and Contractors

The Contractors Association of Pakistan (CAP) is pressurizing Engineering Development Board (EDB) to let them import heavy construction machinery, specialized vehicle mounted, and Euro II compliant vehicles older than 5 years.

CAP intends to use these vehicles for governmental and CPEC projects. The local vehicle industry, however, is opposing this idea because they believe any policy change will harm the local assemblers and will be against the Auto Policy 2016-21.


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They presented their demands during a meeting held in Islamabad, adding that eight important types of construction equipment, including dump trucks (above 5 tonnes and Euro II compliant), prime movers trucks, mobile cable crane, transit mixer trucks, cement bulker trucks, super swinger trucks conveys, and drilling specialized trucks are not manufactured or assembled in Pakistan. The contractors demanded to change the policy and allow imports based on their remaining life or to extend the useful life of vehicles from 5 years to 15 years.

Asking them to consult the local companies for necessary machinery and equipment, local heavy industry opposed their demands and urged the EDB to reject CAP’s demands which are against Auto Policy 2016-21. They claimed that all types of vehicles and equipment are available and have been assembled on special orders from Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and the National Highway Authority (NHA).


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In February 2018, it was already decided that importing equipment on a remaining life policy is not practical. Moreover, it was mutually agreed later, on March 13th, 2018 that some machinery, including some of the aforementioned ones were not being manufactured locally and the contractors could specify their requirements separately in a list – the council required this list to be recommended to the EDB so that the development board could include it in the 2018-19 Budget.

However, the contractors did not contact any respective body, not even any assembler to present their requirements.



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