Pakistan’s Automobile companies have collected around Rs. 217 billion from customers in advance bookings this year with Toyota Indus Motors Company (IMC) leading the game at Rs. 112 billion.
Secretary of Ministry of Industries and Production revealed these numbers at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, which was headed by MNA Noor Alam Khan.
Toyota is followed by Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) at Rs. 41.66 billion and Honda Atlas Cars Limited (HACL) at Rs. 23 billion, the secretary added.
He explained that they collected 20 to 100 percent of the car’s price as booking from customers despite the fact their production facilities are not fully operational.
He further detailed that companies are compelled to deliver vehicles within 60 days of booking, adding that Toyota can produce 5,600 vehicles per year, but it does not do so because of its partially operational plant.
If a company fails to deliver the vehicle in the mentioned time they have to pay KIBOR plus 3 percent penalty for late delivery. In this regard, the secretary revealed that the car companies have paid over Rs. 1.9 billion to the customers during the last two years.
During the meeting, PAC suggested changing the name of Pakistan’s automakers to auto assemblers, while automakers argued that they were suffering losses, which is why they had to close the plant.
The money captured by the car companies in terms of advance payment for the months pertains to the people who generated that by working day and night and then go towards ease by booking their cars and living the luxuries. But they will get their cars after half a year or more, it’s just insanity. You will pay around half crore to get the obsolete luxury after half a year or more.
One big thing which is not pointed is the fraudulent practice of some companies like Kia which failed to deliver cars booked even in 2021 against 100% advance payments and now is demanding millions extra from customers in term of price differential.