KARACHI: Tracking appreciation of the rupee against the dollar by 11 percent in last 15 days, auto manufacturers have passed on the impact to buyers by reducing their vehicles' prices up to 7 percent.
Pak Suzuki Motors on Tuesday decreased prices of all its variants of cars and cargo from Rs75,000 to Rs199,000 per unit, which is a decline of around five percent. Indus Motors has also lowered the rates up to seven percent.
In a revised price plan, Suzuki decreased Rs90,000 per unit of its Alto VX to Rs1.699 million from Rs1.789 million. The new price of Alto VXR reached to Rs1.976 million with a decline of Rs103,000 from Rs2.079 million. Alto AGS reached Rs2.223 million with a decline of Rs116,000.
Price of Wagon Rs VXR reached to Rs2.421 million with a decline of Rs128,000, Wagon R VXL to Rs2.564 million with a decline of Rs135,000 and Wagon R AGS new price reached to Rs2.802 million with a decrease of Rs147,000.
New rates of Cultus VXR reached to Rs2.754 with a decrease of Rs125,000, Cultus VXL to Rs3.024 million with a drop of Rs135,000 and Cultus AGS dropped by Rs145,000 to Rs3.234 million.
The price of Swift GL MT dropped by Rs169,000 to Rs3.180 million, Swift GL CVT by Rs179,000 to Rs3.420 million and Swift GLX CVT rates dropped by Rs199,000 to Rs3.760 million per unit.
Ravi witnessed a decline of Rs75,000 to Rs1.424 million and Rs1.349 million for the lower price variant. Rates of Bolan Van and Bolan Cargo were each cut by Rs79,000 to Rs1.5 million and Rs1.487 million per unit, respectively.
Though the rupee has appreciated around 11 percent in 15 days, the prices have been cut by five percent to seven percent only by the auto manufacturers.
Pak Suzuki had increased the rates of its vehicles on Aug 1 when the rupee was continuously depreciating against the dollar. The company had increased rates of its vehicles between Rs251,000 per unit on Bolan to Rs661,000, the highest increase on Swift GLX CVT.
Indus Motors also revised prices of its vehicles from Monday where various variants of Yaris decreased from Rs260,000 to Rs310,000 per unit. A decrease of Rs330,000 to Rs440,000 was recorded in prices of Corolla variants, Rs910,000 to Rs1.14 million were decreased on different variants of Fortuner and Rs650,000 to Rs820,000 per unit decline was recorded on Revo variants.
The company decreased prices by around four percent to up to seven percent on different variants of its cars.
Pak Suzuki shuts down plant for 2 days
Meanwhile, Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited announced to shut down its production plant for two days (August 18-19) on a shortage of inventory level caused by import restrictions.
In a notification to Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the company said the State Bank of Pakistan had introduced a mechanism for prior approval for import under HS code 8703 category (including CKDs).
The restrictions adversely impacted clearance of import consignment, which resultantly affected the inventory level, the notification read.
“Due to shortage of inventory level, the senior management of the company has decided to temporarily shut down its production plant of automobile products from August 18, 2022, to August 19, 2022.” However, the motorcycle plant would remain operative, it said.
Earlier this month also, Indus Motors had shut down its plant for some days on shortage of inventory.