Importing cars, especially the used ones have gained much important in the past few years. Investments in auto industry increased exponentially from 50% to 70% in the past five years.
While importing cars has its own benefits, not everyone can import cars from abroad. Initially, cars were mainly imported for commercial purposes. With the increased prices of automobiles in the local auto industry, people started buying cars from abroad, especially Japan for personal use and gift purposes.
Having said that, there is an entire market industry of imported automobiles in Pakistan. Dealers from Pakistan buy new and used cars from abroad and sell them in Pakistan. This third party process comes with a lot of custom duties and taxes.
The procedure is mainly based on online auctions. Most of the importing car companies provide access to live auction in auction houses. Firstly, you need to sign up on various companies’ portal. Once it is done, logging in will lead to a page where you have to bid on a vehicle you want to buy. A whole lot of auction sheet will be available containing details of cars available for auction. People can see the specifications like model, year, date of auction and minimum bid etc.
The documentation process from the importing company starts and they send documents including Invoice, original Export certificate in Japanese, translated export certificate in English, and two copies of original B/L (bill of lading). Customer receives their cars from Karachi Port Trust in approximately 15 days, but the figure can go slightly up. Another process of buying imported cars is through Dealers in Pakistan. But it requires people to pay an amount higher than the original one and the process can take a longer time period to be completed.
However, it is not easy as it sounds. Importing cars from abroad, whether personally or through third party is a cumber some process. Adding more complexity into it, the government has recently amended the used cars imported policy and imposed restrictions and high custom duties. The high influx of cars from abroad decreased at higher rate and both the dealers and buyers are being worse off. Now, not everyone can import cars on their own. Conditions under which a used car can be imported have been laid down by the government, making the process more complicated. In conclusion, things got more complicated in the importing sector of automobiles since the announcement of the new policy.
by Amara Aqsa
