According to a letter issued by the provincial finance department, a request made to provide Punjab Board of Revenue officials, Divisional Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners and Additional Deputy Commissioners with new cars has been approved.
Per the letter, additional commissioners of each division shall be allocated new Toyota Corolla 1.6 Altis CVT -- which currently has a market price of Rs6.77 million each.
Additional Deputy Commissioners (General) of each district will be provided with new Toyota Yaris ATIV 1.3L. The vehicle is priced at Rs5 million in the open market.
Assistant Commissioners of each Tehsil, however, will be awarded luxury pickup trucks, double cabin Toyota Revo-G (Manual transmission with 4x4 capabilities). The base variant of the vehicle costs around Rs12.4 million.
In all, the new purchases will cost the government around Rs2.333 billion in public money. There is no telling how much more these vehicles will cost in terms of fuel consumption, maintenance and other associative and auxiliary costs.
Moreover, it said that vehicles which were in use of these officials would be returned to the central motor pool and reassigned to tehsildars across the province.
What is intriguing is that the letter is dated the same day that the manufacturer of these vehicles, Indus Motor Company -- which is listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, filed that it will be shutting down plant operations completely from July 21, 2023, to August 3, 2023.
The letter, addressed to the General Manager of the Stock Exchange, stated that it was making disclosures as required under Sections 96 and 131 of the Securities Act 2015 and Clause 5.6.1 (a) of the PSX Regulations.
"The company (Indus Motors) and its vendors continue to face hurdles on import of raw materials and receiving clearance of their consignments, on account of challenges in the opening of Letters of Credit (LCs) and supply issues by certain foreign vendors," the company wrote.
It added that this has "disrupted the supply chain of the company, and the vendors are unable to supply raw materials and components to the company."
"Accordingly, the company has insufficient inventory levels to maintain production, therefore the company is unable to continue its production activities," it said, adding that the company will completely shut down the production plant from July 21, 2023, to August 3, 2023.
On Friday, Indus Motors saw its share prices settle at Rs969.91 a share, having had an oscillating day with an opening high of Rs984 and a day low of Rs950.
It was up by Rs5.81 (0.60%) over the previous day's close of Rs964.10.