KARACHI: Pakistan’s overall bus and truck sales surged to 800 units in May from 600 in April, with the industry players expecting even better figures in the coming months.

According to the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), Hinopak sold 2,210 trucks in the first 11 months (July to May) of this fiscal year compared to 1,330 units a year ago.

Master and Isuzu trucks sales swelled to 751 and 1,183 units from 711 and 746, while sales of Nissan slightly fell to 756 from 810 units.

Hinopak’s bus sales almost doubled to 748 units as compared to 437 units in July-May FY15 while sales of Isuzu climbed to 153 units from 49. Master sold 14 buses as against 12 a year earlier. Other makers of heavy vehicles include Dongfeng, Mitsubishi, JAC, Daewoo, FAW, etc.

According to the Economic Survey 2015-16, truck sales has been rising on account of measures taken by the government such as combination of stringent enforcement actions and policy interventions; whereby disguised/mis-declared import of trucks could be curbed. The survey said the situation would further improve with expected imposition of age limit on the import of used trucks.

Naushad Riaz, senior general manager strategic business planning and chassis assembly operations at Hinopak Motors Limited (HML), said that due to government’s positive steps, the monthly arrivals of used trucks have dropped from 150-200 to 50-60, giving a big chance for the local industry to capitalise on the demand.

However, overall good economic conditions also restored the confidence of truck buyers followed by improvement in large-scale manufacturing which requires additional volumes of trucks to carry load.

On the role of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in overall truck sales, he said there was apparently no big role of the CPEC at the moment as foreign contractors were using their own machineries and vehicles instead of taking them from the local industry. However, the industry had the capacity to provide trucks, dumpers, prime movers and special-purpose vehicles on good sales terms, he added.

He said the industry now appeared alarmed over budgetary measures. For instance, in the finance bill 2016, exemption from sales tax is proposed to be granted to dump trucks for Thar Coalfield in the belief that dump trucks were not produced locally.

Mr Riaz said Hinopak was already manufacturing and supplying dumpers to various local customers in the range of 5 to 15 cubic metres capacity with a capacity to deliver 50 units per month.

He added that in addition to Hinopak there were many other manufacturers in Pakistan who were in a position to meet any demand in a short span of time.

The PAMA has informed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar that local manufacturers were producing dump trucks locally and their interest shall be adversely hit if proposed exemption goes through because the imported products would outprice the locals with the massive price relief that sales tax exemption carries.

According to the Economic Survey 2015-16, the remarkable growth in buses was due to high demand by the transporters on account of improvement in network of roads. The locally produced buses were being offered at highly competitive prices despite imposition of sales tax, compared to the prices of imported buses, the survey said. Besides the service and maintenance are not the issues with the local products compared to the imported ones.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2016