LAHORE – The tractor industry is striving for revival from the adverse impact of taxation, as the present production figures of 53,975 units are still behind the pre-taxation figures of 70,770 units that were achieved years ago. The industry stakeholders said that the imposition of tax has not only overturned the momentum but also the growth, already achieved, was also lost.
It is to be noted that Sindh Government, in the past, has been under severe criticism for introducing Tractor Schemes that lacked transparency. It was only after an outcry from farmers and also complaint by PAMA on the irregularities in Sindh Tractor Scheme then, Sindh Government allocated only 6200 units to be divided equally amongst all local manufactures only to silence the protesting companies.
“The best option is that government should let this be the choice of the customers i.e. farmers, to choose freely from amongst the available local brands and the Sindh Government should not interfere with the market mechanism in this regard” said the DG PAMA.
He added that any undue support to any particular brand would not only be unfair but would defeat the purpose of the scheme and result in waste of resources as the farmers may end up buying a shoddy product.
Tractor assembly industry in Pakistan has long been in existence, so farmers are well aware with the standing of one brand against the other in terms of their general performance, credibility on quality, and value for their money.