Automark

The Director General Customs Valuation has issued new custom values on August 25, 2016 after three years for import of motorcycle helmets ranging between $2.60 to $9.60 per piece of Chinese and other countries origin based on the prevailing prices in world markets.

Customs values for bike helmets (half and full face and cross shaped) specified shall be assessed to duty/taxes of above customs values.

The department claims to have initiated an exercise for determining customs values for bike helmets and meetings in this regards were held with stakeholders August 16 and August 25. The stakeholders were asked to submit various documents before the meeting which included invoices of imports made during the last three months showing factual value, website emails and addresses of known foreign manufacturers of the item to ascertain current value, copies of contracts made/LCs opened during the last three months showing value of the items and copies of sales tax invoices issued during the last four months showing the difference in price (excluding duty and taxes) to substantiate that the benefit of difference in price is passed to the local buyers.

However, the Director General did not receive any documents and not even after the said scheduled meetings.

The Customs said valuation methods given in Section 25 of the Customs Act 1969 were followed. Transactions value method provided in Section 25 (I) was found inapplicable because the requisite information was not available. Identical/ similar goods value methods provided in Section 25 (5) and (6) were also not found helpful in determination of values due to wide variation in values. Consequently market enquiries as envisaged under Section 25(7) of the Customs Act 1969, were conducted and customs values of bike helmets were determined under Section (7) of the Customs Act 1969.

In cases where declared transactions values are higher than the customs values determined in this ruling, the assessing officers shall apply those values in terms of Sub Section (i) of Section 25 of the Customs Act 1969. In case of consignments imported by air, the assessing officers shall take into account the differential between air freight and sea freight while applying the customs values determined in the ruling.

The values determined in the ruling shall be the applicable customs value for assessment of subject imported goods until and unless it is rescinded or revised by the competent authority.

A revision petition may be filed against the ruling within 30 days from the date of issue of the ruling.

Market sources said that previous ruling on full face helmet of China was $2.53 per piece while valuation of half face helmet was $2.23.

They said the import duty on helmet ranges between 16-20 per cent, additional customs duty of one per cent, 17 per cent sales tax, additional three per cent sales tax and six to nine per cent income tax. Considering the valuation ruling of $2.80 of a Chinese helmet at 16pc ST, one per cent additional customs duty, three per cent additional sales tax and six per cent income tax, the cost of import for a helmet comes to Rs 440. On the contrary, full face helmet of Chinese origin sells between Rs 800 to Rs 4,000 while half face helmet sells between Rs 750 to Rs 3,500. Some branded cross shape helmet is priced Rs 5,000.

Akbar Market, hub of helmet and bikes, also has Indian helmets with warranty of three years at a price ranging between Rs 3,000-5,000. Sub standard locally produced helmets are available at Rs 500.

On some FTA approved companies/importers, the rate of customs duty is five per cent.

Chairman Association of Pakistan Motorcycle Assemblers (APMA), Mohammad Sabir Shaikh said it is surprising that the market has Indian helmet and it is not clear whether these helmets are officially allowed or finding way through illegal channels.

He said it is also unclear whether imports of helmets from China at same of European standards or average quality is arriving into Pakistan.

He said customs department does not have any study regarding category of helmets arriving from China as certified helmets are already very costly in China starting from minimum $10 to $35 per piece and sub standard helmets are priced between $4 to $13 per piece.

The long awaited Automotive Development Plan is now announced previous month after a lapse of almost five years. The plan provides lucrative incentives for almost all segments of Automobiles which includes Passenger Cars, Light Commercial Vehicles, Buses, Trucks and Prime Movers. Two categories are developed for the investors in this Plan which includes Green Field Project and another one is Brown Field Project.

In Green Field Project the incentive is given mainly to the new investors in Passenger Cars segments with strict condition of introduction of new “MAKE” rather than new “MODEL”. According to this scheme only those investors who will invest in purchasing of land and development of infrastructure and will introduce only those MAKES which are not yet previously assembled in Pakistan will be given incentives in the shape of imports of 100 units of CBUs of that particular Make at 50% of prevailing rate of custom duty, One time duty free imports of Plant Equipments and Machines and five years relaxation on imports of 100% CKD at the rate of 10% Custom Duty for Passenger Cars only and for three years for Buses, Trucks and Prime Movers only to import 100% CKD at prevailing rate of custom duty for non localize parts.

In Brown Field Scheme those assembly plants which are closed since 2013 are given a chance to re start their operations by importing 100% CKD at the rate of  prevailing rate of custom duty for non localize parts for three years for buses, trucks and Prime Movers only.

Pakistan is basically an agricultural country and our main source of food is Agriculture Farming. Tractors and agricultural equipments plays a major role in mechanized farming. Due to shortage of water resources, unstable input prices of agricultural seeds and fertilizers, lack of research and development and having no advisory services to farmers in Pakistan, the total land utilization could not be significantly increased. In 1991 it was 21.35MHa and till 2010-2011 it was 23.40MHa out of 79.61 MHa land, despite the fact that tractor population has been increased over the last 23 years, which is approximately 700,000 units today which according to experts should be more than One million.

The present per hectare horsepower (HP) availability in Pakistan is only 0.90 HP per hectare as opposed to 2.31 HP in India. The requirement of 1.4HP per hectare Pakistan is recommended by FAO which can be achieved through high volumes of tractor manufacturing industry.

In Pakistan there are six tractor assembly plants however only three are in production. The accumulated annual production of all three active units are around 45,000 to 50,000 where as the estimated demand of tractors are more than 70,000 tractors. To fulfill this Demand and Supply Gap, since last ten years imports of CBU were allowed at Zero rate of custom duty, however from the   fiscal budget 2014-15 15% custom duty and 10 percent Sales tax is imposed on CBU to support the local tractor industry which is now further reduce to only 5% in fiscal budget 2016-17.

Tractors are required by the Farmers, Construction Companies, and Land Developers.  Government of Pakistan is also working on large number of projects and requires large number of tractors.

An in-depth study of last twelve years local production and sales of tractors revealed that the industry is not able to meet the increasing demand of tractors while calculating AAGR the industry shown growth of only 2.16% over the last 12 years .There may be different reasons behind this shortfall  such as withdrawal of Government Green Tractor Schemes , failure of local parts supplies , old equipment’s, conventional type of production lines or other managing problems, therefore the Government is forced to allow imports of CBU tractors to meet the farmers demands.

Pakistan needs more tractor plants to support its farmers and to provide food to its people. Inspite of all these knowing facts ,in the coming new ADP 2016-21 this important sector is totally ignored no incentives in shape of Green or Brown Field is allowed to this important sectors the reasons for this ignorance best known to the high ups of BOI, EDB and other Government Sectors.

Pakistani people needs foods at affordable price not new Make of lucrative European cars, this important ignorance from a very important Government Ministry leaves many questions. Any one can go to the Pakistani Court and can quash this policy at any time similar to the tractor scheme announced in Gen Pervaiz Musharaf era which was totally quashed by the Sind High Court therefore the concern ministry should immediately review the announced policy and gives similar incentives to this important sector as given to New Passenger Cars.

This exclusive article published in Monthly AutoMark Magazine’s August-2016’s printed edition

by I.H.T. Farooqui, Advisor Monthly AutoMark Magazine and Chief Operating Officer at Karakoram Motors (pvt) Ltd., Karachi-Pakistan

Yamaha is working on the 2017 model of its popular middleweight sports bike YZF-R6; Likely to be introduced in a few months.

Yamaha is working on the 2017 model of its popular middleweight sports bike YZF-R6. Recently, some images of the next-gen model have surfaced on the internet that reveals some interesting details about this upcoming motorcycle. As seen in the images, the 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 has its huge resemblance to its elder sibling R1. The front has been given the same hidden headlight treatment that is seen on the flagship Yamaha.

If some speculations are to be believed, Honda is planning to retire the R6 rival that is commonly known as the CBR 600RR. Yamaha might have thought to use the opportunity to the fullest for a simple reason. If Honda plans to discontinue the CBR 600RR, Yamaha will be benefitting huge from it and hence decided to bring the more appealing R6 in order to grab more market share of the respective segment.

Yamaha YZF-R6 was first introduced by the company back in 1998. Since then, the motorcycle has seen numerous development stage with the most recent one implemented in 2010 that involved some minor fixes in the power-train. Other than that, the motorcycle got its visual upgrade in 2008. Coming back to the leaked image, this upcoming Yamaha YZF-R6 will boast of almost the same design cues that are found on the new Yamaha R1.

Apart from the headlamp section, the bike will carry air vents on the fuel tank, large intake scoops and rear view mirror mounted clear lens turn indicators. Talking of power, the current generation R6 develops a peak power output of somewhere around 123 bhp. However, seeing the growing competitiveness, we believe that the company will launch the 2017 model with a slight bump in power figures. Stay tuned as we bring you more details on this upcoming Yamaha motorcycle!

In Pakistan, used car imports have been on a rise for more than five years in a row. In FY2016 alone more than 43,000 used cars were imported to Pakistan up from around 28,000 used car imports in FY2015. These imports have been made mostly by big dealers who also happen to have offices in Japan which purchase the car, initiate import and then sell them here in Pakistan. PakWheels.com provided comprehensive information about Used Car Importers in Pakistan; you can import your favorite car at PakWheels.com

So the question that pops in the head is: How can you import one by yourself?

Part 1: Selection

Step1: Used cars in Japan are mostly auctioned at auction houses which can be tracked online through various auction sites live. Your safest bet is to find an auction website and sign up.

Step2: Search for the car you are looking for. The search process is also similar to any other classifieds website.

Step3: Once you have found the car you want to import, look for its auction sheet which provides a concise grading for the car. Moreover, the page also mentions its auction date and auction house.

Part 2: Purchasing the car offshore

Step1: Now if you are genuinely interested in getting the car imported, you will need to deposit a refundable payment of around USD 1000 to the company’s account (this amount may vary depending on the company you use) this amount is refunded in case you do not win the auction of the car.

Step2: Once you make the payment, you will be granted access to bid on the cars available for auction online.

Step3: After you have placed the bid for your desired car, you will be intimated by your company on the auction date regarding results of the auction.

Step4: Now if you win the auction, your company would ask you to pay the difference between the upfront deposit and the winning auction price. In addition to this, you will be requested to pay for the C&F or Cost and Freight charges. C&F charges are less than 10% of your winning bid.

Note: If you didn’t win the auction you would need to repeat the steps listed before.

Part 3: Importing the car things to note!

1)    Once the payments have been confirmed, your company would send the original documents of your car via courier before car’s shipment

2)    After payment, the car is sent to the inspection office for a final review which can take up to five days

3)     Delivery takes around 15 days to reach Karachi Port

4)    A customs agent needs to be hired to handle the process of customs clearance along with the payment of passport fees and port charges.

By Adan Ali

Atlas Honda Limited (AHL) has increased the price on its four models CG-125, Prider, CG-125 Dream and CG-125 Deluxe by Rs500 in the first week of this month.

According to a dealer, the company has not given any reason for pushing up the rates. However, the price of CD-70 and CD-70 Dream has been unchanged for more than a year at Rs. 63,500 and Rs. 67,500

Market sources said that CG-125 has been facing severe shortage owing to huge demand and the company has been unable to cope with it. Taking advantage of the situation, some market dealers were seen charging premium on CG-125 up to Rs. 10,000 including registration papers even though the company’s price is Rs. 105,000.

A dealer said that the overall production of Honda bikes in June 2016 fell to 62,200 units from 73,000 in May 2016. The overall production in 2015-16, however, swelled to 810,539 from 652,593 units in 2014-15