By Ariba Shahid
W
hat is the car buying experience like for the average Pakistani? Many people buy cars in Pakistan without bank financing, which means they pay a lump sum to a car dealership that then delivers the vehicle in the next six or so months. If they want a car immediately, they have to pay an ‘on’ price to drive away with the car the same day. For people that cannot afford to pay in full, there is bank financing. However, this comes with an interest rate that hovers around 13% and a significant waiting period that depends on the scheme and bank you are using to finance your car.
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Along with the high-interest rate and waiting period, there are also the issues of expensive insurance, and high taxes. What can be gauged from this is that buying a car in Pakistan is an unnecessarily complex and expensive process that is exacerbated by the woes of a high interest industry. And with car prices surging in the past couple of years, people looking to buy cars have had even more to be worried about. With all this going on, what if we told you that the government had just launched a scheme that would lower interest rates to almost half, slash waiting times by half, decrease taxes due on the car, and offer cheaper insurance? Prospective buyers might sing for joy and do a little dance. But then what if we told you
that the offer was not available to people living in Pakistan? Prospective buyers might now be confused and offended. This is exactly what is happening with the Roshan Digital Apni Car Scheme recently launched by the government. Under the scheme, if a non-resident Pakistani wants to buy a car for their family back home, they can finance a car digitally from across the world, at cheaper rates and more conveniently than Pakistanis living in Pakistan can. The idea is that non-resident Pakistanis will buy more cars at home, and send more remittances to do so. “You give many more subsidies with much less return. Look at what India does with its Non-Resident Indians (NRI). Overseas are your power bank and they’ve never gotten anything in return. We are
