KARACHI: Used car dealers said that auto assemblers have passed on limited price relief to the consumers in the wake of eight to nine per cent depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, while the car assemblers disagreed.

Chairman All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association (APMDA), H.M. Shahzad informed the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through a letter on April 10, 2014 that Pak Suzuki had reduced prices of Mehran by Rs5,000 which should have been at least Rs36,000.

He said the prices of Liana and Swift are almost same but surprisingly Liana price was cut by Rs100,000 followed by Swift price by Rs20,000. Pak Suzuki had cut prices by Rs5,000 to Rs100,000 while the assemblers of Honda cars and Toyota cars had slashed prices by Rs30,000-40,000 and Rs50,000-75,000 respectively.

He said that the prices of cars should have been dropped by at least 6pc but the price fall was hovering at 0.5 to 2.5pc.

Shahzad said the three assemblers had always raised the prices by three to four times every year on rupee devaluation against the dollar. He added that car prices had almost become doubled in the last five years. He said the car companies would not give big price relief to the buyers as they have total monopoly in the business.

He rejected the claim of assemblers that used car arrivals are taking away their market share, he said used car of three years old has nothing to do with the sale of new locally assembled cars whose sales are showing positive growth.

APMDA chief urged the Prime Minister to raise the age limit of imported used cars to five years from three years and allow them on commercial basis which would control the misuse of facilities of transfer of residence, gift and baggage schemes.

Local car assemblers said vehicle pricing is a complex subject involving many variables like extent of localisation or value of import content, local duty/taxes, inventory levels, exposure on long term contracts, etc.

“The forex impact is generally limited to imported content minus local taxes, which varies from model to model and variant to variant while it must also be kept in mind that industry has a long planning cycles for CKD/Parts inventory,” they added.

“There is no visible decrease in the prices of imported used vehicles despite having 100pc exposure to forex,” they said adding that used car dealers have chosen to maximise their profits instead of passing the benefits of rupee appreciation to the consumers.

Meanwhile, sale of locally produced cars inched up by 1.5pc in July-March 2013-2014 to 86,395 units from 85,083 units in same period last fiscal.