Earlier, Indus Motor Company (IMC) had also increased prices of various models by Rs230,000-830,000 followed by a jump of Rs260,000-425,000 by Honda Atlas Cars Limited.
Read more: Increase In Cars Prices By Honda: Consumers Question Silence And Role of Govt
The company in its letter issued to the authorised dealers attributed the price hike to negative exchange rate impact on account of recent rupee devaluation and new duties/taxes/federal excise duty levied by the government in the fiscal budget.
According to a DAWN report, the prices of Suzuki Mehran VX and VXR models has been increased to Rs839,000 and Rs923,000 from Rs799,000 and Rs880,000 respectively.
Prices of other models are: Cultus VXR, VXL and VXL AGS Rs1.745 million, Rs1.85 million and Rs1.975 million against Rs1.440 million, Rs1.551 million and Rs1.668 million respectively; Swift DLX NAV and AT NAV Rs1.975 million and Rs2.050 million from Rs1.585 million and Rs1.721 million.
WagonR VXR and VXL Rs1.540 million and Rs1.625 million against Rs1.264 million and Rs1.344 million; Bolan and Bolan Cargo Van Rs1.050 million and Rs1.005 million from Rs874,000 and Rs840,000; Ciaz GL MT and GL AT Rs2.3 million and Rs2.5 million from Rs2.160 million and Rs2.300 million; Suzuki Vitara GLX Rs4.295 million from Rs4.090 million.
The company said the hikes would not be apply on pending orders by customers who have failed to deposit their balance payment within tentative delivery date of vehicles.
Car prices in Pakistan have remained vulnerable to turbulence in exchange rate despite claims from assemblers and vendors of achieving up to 70 per cent localisation in production.
PSMC Spokesperson Shafiq Ahmed Sheikh said the auto sales may come under pressure in coming months after massive jump in price tags.
“We have not passed the full impact of new taxes and duties to the consumers and the company is still bearing the major impact of new budgetary measures,” he claimed.
As per data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, during the first 11months of the ongoing fiscal year, import of used cars plunged by 49 per cent to $216.5 million.
Amid interest rate hike, rising petrol and diesel rates and multiple price increases, overall sales of locally assembled cars did not show any negative growth in the ongoing fiscal year.