No action against local car assemblers including Suzuki on enhancing prices: APMDA

Pakistan Suzuki Motor Company has enhanced prices of its two brands of cars from Rs 35,000 to Rs 42,000 in Pakistan

KARACHI: The federal government is not taking action against any local assemblers specially Suzuki who deliberately enhance prices on the pretext of rising dollar-rupee parity and on other side the customers have to pay ‘On-Money’ at the time of booking or on delivery of their vehicles.

Few days ago, Pakistan Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) has enhanced prices of its two brands of cars from Rs 35,000 to Rs 42,000 in Pakistan, which also creates panic in the automotive industry as the car purchasing for a customer is out of range.

“The federal government has banned the import of used cars and other vehicles in Pakistan and now the local assemblers are taking benefit of it, said H. M. Shahzad, Chairman All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA) here on Sunday. “The prices of all locally assembled cars in Pakistan are almost 125 per cent up in last 2 years but federal government is silent over this issue,” he added.

All the local assemblers are producing low quality vehicles compared to other world, but its prices are almost double or triple in Pakistan, he said. The customers are paying Rs 300,000 to Rs 600,000 on-money on local car purchase, he claimed.

Recently, the Pak Suzuki has increased its car prices up to Rs 42,000. Third time this year, the company has revised the prices of Alto Wagon R and Swift all over the country.

On the pretext of rupee-dollar parity, the Suzuki Company has shown this increase, but interestingly the dollar has come down against the Pakistani rupee in last few weeks.

According to the company’s notification, the new price of Alto VXR and Alto AGS has seen a jump of Rs 35,000 and now will cost Rs 1.433 million and Rs 1.633 million respectively. Meanwhile, the new price of WagonR VXR is 1.640 million after an increase of Rs 42,000 from its old rate of Rs 1.598 million. Moreover, WagonR VXL now costs Rs 1.730 million, compared to old rate of Rs 1.695 million.

Furthermore, Swift MT has seen a jump of Rs 35,000 and now costs Rs 2.030 million, while Swift AT’s new price is Rs 2.140 million after witnessing a hike of Rs 35.000.

Earlier in July 2020, Pak Suzuki Motors increased the price of the base model of Alto VX by Rs 63,000. The company announced the cost hike for 660cc vehicles in a notification to its dealers across the country. The company implemented the new prices from July 7, 2020.

The first quarter of fiscal year 2020-21 ended on a contrasting note for auto sector, depicting a 2.7 per cent rise in car sales to 31,868 units while production fell by 24 per cent to 27,574.

However, September figures for production and sales of cars remained positive with 12,117 and 11,860 units versus 7,177 and 9,885 in August and 9,090 and 10,923 units in September 2019, respectively.

Honda Civic and City car volumes revived with an impressive 65 per cent jump to 6,483 units in 1QFY21 while Suzuki Bolan held second position with an increase of 59 per cent in sales to 1,758.

Suzuki Swift sales recovered by 20% to 630 units, followed by 13% hike in Suzuki WagonR sales to 2,460 units, figures released by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (Pama) revealed.

Suzuki Alto emerged as one of the main losers in the 1QFY21, posting a massive drop of 41% to 7,651 units, while Toyota Corolla sales also declined by 34% to 3,614 due to introduction of its in-house competitor Yaris whose volumes came in at 6,009. Suzuki Cultus sales dipped 9% to 3,263 units.

Amid rising demand, Indus Motor Company has given a price shock of Rs 40,000 on all variants of Toyota Yaris which is effective from October 13 despite rupee gaining against the dollar, which usually lowers down cost of imported parts and accessories.

IMC had also raised the price of Yaris when the plant and showrooms were closed countrywide in April and May due to strict lockdown. The assembler sold 2,421 units of Yaris in September as compared to 1,705 units in August.

In light commercial vehicles, pickups and jeeps, Toyota Fortuner, Honda BR-V and Toyota Hilux showed massive rise of 47%, 80% and 81% to 390, 952 and 1,702 units respectively in 1QFY21.

Suzuki Ravi and JAC sales in the last three months rose by 11% and 16% year-on-year to 1,723 and 160 units.

Newcomers Hyundai Tucson and Hyundai Porter sold 237 units in August-September, compared to 255 in July-September. In heavy vehicles, both truck and bus sales failed to achieve a positive growth. Despite good volumes of Isuzu and Master, total truck sales fell by 10.4pc in 1QFY21 to 783 units due to 68pc decline in Hino’s to 115 units. However, Master and Isuzu sold 223 and 391 units, up by 84pc and 1pc, respectively.

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