Govt to Treat Vehicles with 2,000 km Mileage as New

The government has enforced a decision by promulgating Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs) for allowing the import of vehicles up to 2,000 km from the earlier limit of 500 km.

According to SRO 430 issued here by the Ministry of Commerce, in the exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act 1950, the federal government is pleased to direct the following further amendment shall be made in the Import Policy Order 2022 namely:

“In the aforesaid order in paragraph 2 in clause (h) for the figure 500, the figure of 2,000 shall be substituted.”

Sources said that this change in the import policy of vehicles has raised eyebrows, with people wondering why such a sudden change was made effective just a few months ahead of the 2024-25 budget. Earlier, the definition of a new imported car had a mileage of 500 kilometers after the car was booked from a manufacturing company abroad. Now the government has classified the newly imported car’s definition as one that has travelled up to 2,000 kilometres for import. The government would not treat them as used cars. Customs officials would also take care of the fact that the latest model cars must also be manufactured in the year of import in Pakistan.

Speaking about the rationale of the decision, a govt official said that while importing some specialized vehicles from China used in cleaning roads and for carrying cars that had a mileage of 800-1500 kilometers, customs officials did not allow their import, arguing they fell under the category of used vehicles.

The official in the Ministry of Industries said that in China, such vehicles are manufactured in one corner of the country and shipped out from another corner. Such newly manufactured vehicles from their companies travel a distance of 800-1,500 km to reach the port city from where they are shipped out for Pakistan.

The government, the official said, will consider them as new cars not used cars. However, the commercial import of used cars is still banned in the wake to preserve the depleting forex reserves. At the same time, the State Bank of Pakistan has also eased the regulations for advance payments of imports allowing authorised dealers to make full payments in advance without prior approval.

Source: The News