After supplying car and truck radiators to countries like the US, Australia, Mexico, the West Indies, the Middle East, and some parts of Europe, Ludhiana-based G S Radiators Ltd, part of the Rs 100-crore G S Group, will soon be exporting to Pakistan. G S Radiators Ltd manufactures car, tractors and truck radiators besides also manufacturing other automotive components. |
G S Radiators Ltd Managing Director Ranjodh Singh has recently returned from his weeklong trip to Pakistan. He was part of the first Indian delegation that traveled from Amritsar to Nankana Sahib on March 24 on bus, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. |
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Speaking to Business Standard, Ranjodh Singh, Managing Director of G S Radiators Ltd said that in Pakistan, he held a meeting with Usman Aslam Malik, Member (North Zone) of Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM) and Usman showed his desire to import our radiators. |
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``Not only did they show keen interest for importing radiators from our company but they were also keen on importing the technology as well. In India, a car radiator costs around Rs 2,000 and in Pakistan; same radiator is sold for Rs 2,200. Prices of all types of radiators are comparatively 10 percent more than that in India. Thought 10 percent is not a big margin, but Indian radiators are far better quality wise. In India, engineering capabilities increased in the era of CAD (Computer aided design) CAM (Computer aided manufacturing) but this technology is used very less in Pakistan.'' |
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Speaking to Business Standard on phone from Lahore (Pakistan), Mian Farooq Altaf, member of PAAPAM said that Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts Accessories Manufacturers was formed in 1988 to represent and to provide technical and management cooperation to its members. ``PAAPAM, with its almost a decade old history, has attained a level of an indispensable and extremely effective link between the policy-making echelons at government and the whole entity of its member firms. The Association achieved recognition form the Government of the Pakistan in 1999 and today is represented in many Government and semi government as well as Private Institutions by its members. PAAPAM is also the member of the Federal of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI).'' |
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Usman Aslam Malik, member of PAAPAM further added that already there have been many types of exchanges between India and Pakistan but the exchange of businessmen have been very few. "More and more business exchange programmes should be organized between both the nations.More business will ensure that inter dependence on each other increases and that will improve the peace process. A businessman of both India and Pakistan wants that the government should invest more and more towards developmental works and not on war.'' |
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Commenting on the comparison in taxes levied on businesses by the governments of both the countries, Ranjodh Singh said that Import duty in India is 7.5 percent but that in Pakistan is 5 percent. ``We have to pay 16 percent Excise duty and then 12.5 percent of Value Added Tax (VAT) if we produce something. But in Pakistan, they have only one tax, which is 18 percent. That is why their economy is prospering. It has all happened after the Musharaff government came into power.'' |
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``I also met a real estate developer in Nankana Sahib named Mohd Shafiq, who was also keen on investing in India, especially in Punjab,'' added Ranjodh. |
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