LAHORE: Auto manufacturers and vendors have demanded the government immediately to announce modalities of the subsidised Benazir Tractor Scheme and allow the national tractor industry to participate.

They made the demand in a meeting of the Pakistan Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM) on Friday. The participants were of the view that if local producers would be involved in the scheme, it would save foreign exchange worth Rs4 billion and generate thousands of jobs for the locals.

The meeting pointed out that the import of tractors would not only jeopardise investment of Rs200 billion in the engineering sector but would also hit 1.6 million workers associated with it. Pakistan is already going through an industrial recession and economic slowdown has resulted in a negative growth in the large manufacturing sector, they said.

It was pointed out that the main objective of the scheme should be betterment of farmers and industrial sector as against the use of foreign exchange for import of tractors which would safeguard the interest of foreign companies and the ultimate sufferers would not only be the industrialists, workers and farmers but people as well.

The stakeholders in the meeting categorically stated that the national tractor industry was fully capable of manufacturing 20,000 tractors because it was already manufacturing 90 per cent parts locally, and it was also able to produce this quantity within six months as against the import that would not take place during this period.