IMC drives up car prices

KARACHI: Indus Motor Company (IMC) has revised the retail prices of its vehicles upwards, citing a massive devaluation of rupee against dollar has bloated its manufacturing cost big time, a statement said on Wednesday.

“The recent currency depreciation has resulted in substantial increase in the expenses on account of cost and freight, government duties/taxes, imported components, and raw materials for local parts,” the carmaker said in the statement.

"It is extremely difficult for the IMC to hold the current retail selling prices and therefore we are compelled to pass on a part of this exchange impact to the market." The company added that it had resumed bookings of cars and high-end vehicles from October 17, 2018.

“Customers, who have paid in full for orders of October and November, will receive cars on same prices as company will absorb the added cost; however, those, who have made partial payments for October, November, and December will have to pay 50 percent of the added cost,” the company said.

It said for November to December, Corolla prices had increased in the range of Rs50,000 to Rs100,000 and the prices of Toyota Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicle (IMV) variants had been raised in the range of Rs125,000 and Rs175,000.