Smuggling of new and used tires is threatening the survival of the tyre local industry in Pakistan as up to 60 percent of the country’s total tire market covered by smuggled tires, causing a huge blow to both the industry and the government.
Tyres Smuggling Causing 50 Billion Revenue Loss:
As part of its ongoing investment effort to improve the quality of its products, Pakistan’s largest tyre producer, GTR Tyre, has invested more than Rs 5 billion over the past five years or so. This ongoing investment enables the company to generate employment opportunities as well as contribute over Rs 4.30 billion annually to the national exchequer. But the local tire industry faces a huge threat to its survival in the form of smuggling as the total estimated value of smuggled tires is over Rs 300 billion. Due to this, the national exchequer suffered a loss of more than 50 billion rupees.
Percentage of Tyres Smuggled In Pakistan:
GTR spokesperson said, Tires are one of the top commodities smuggled into Pakistan, thereby severely damaging the local industry and causing huge losses to the national exchequer. He continued by stating that Pakistan has a close to 14 million tyre market overall excluding tyres for motorcycles and rickshaws, a total of 25% of the demand has satisfied by imports, 15% by domestic production, and 60% by smuggling.
He added if 60% of smuggling has controlled, the gap might covered by local producers and legal imports. Eventually, the GOP would receive its legitimate revenues, which urgently needed. According to a GTR spokesperson, smuggling continues unchecked due to a lack of coordination between government agencies responsible for curbing it.
Smuggling Method:
Our local sources have confirmed that the smuggled tires brought into the country from Dubai in either containers or boats landed in Karachi and then distributed throughout the rest of the country. The GTR Spokesman stated that the government should re-evaluate the statistics of the commodities imported via the ATT and check if the number of vehicles in Afghanistan supports the quantities of tyres imported.
