Pragoti sales down to zero

Pragoti Industries Limited (PIL), the state-owned car assembling and car parts manufacturing company, is passing a tough time as different government institutions have stopped buying all kinds of vehicles.

In an attempt to tackle the ongoing economic recession, the government institutions, that account for 90 per cent of the company’s annual sales, are not buying vehicles for the time being, following an order issued by the Finance Division on July 3 last. As a result, sales of the PIL dropped drastically.

“We have not received any sales order in the current fiscal year as various government institutions are, basically, our main buyers. We are in doubt whether the annual sales target would be achieved,” said PIL Managing Director Akther Hossain, adding that the sharp decline in sales has slowed down the production in the factory.

Sources said the last year’s backlog of orders of Mitsubishi L 200 Pickup and Pajero Sports QX is currently being assembled at PIL’s factory.

With the technical collaboration of General Motors Overseas Distributors Corporation (GMODC) of England, the PlL was established in 1966 at Barabakund area in Chattogram’s Sitakund upazila, 40 KM away from Chattogram Port. The Automobile plant is capable to assemble 1,300 units of mixed production per year.

The factory assembles various kinds of vehicles including trucks, buses, micro-buses, jeeps, cars and tractors of globally reputed manufacturers.

The PIL had a target of selling 900 to 1,000 cars every year, but in the last two years due to the corona pandemic, it failed to achieve the target, selling 711 cars in the 2021-22 financial year.

In the first year of the pandemic, in 2020-21 financial year, the company sold only 344 vehicles while, in 2018-19, Pragoti sold 1,448 units of vehicles, the highest since its inception.

At present, Pragoti has about 170 jeeps and double cabin pickups of Japanese brand Mitsubishi ready for sale, but the vehicles cannot be sold as government institutions have stopped buying vehicles.

PIL MD Akhter Hossain hoped that the government institutions will resume vehicles purchase once the economic situation improves.

While the sales of state-owned PIL have come down to almost zero, the private automobile sector has not been affected that much by the economic recession.

Mohammed Akther Parvez, managing director of PHP Automobiles Ltd, the country’s first private automobile assembling venture, said that the suspension of car purchases by government institutions has not affected the private automobile sector as its customers are mainly from individual and corporate levels.

Sources said at one time, Pragoti assembled many brands of cars in its factory, but the assembling of vehicles narrowed down gradually as the company started importing readymade cars to supply to customers instead of assembling.

The company has stopped adding new cars to its assembling list since long. At present, Pragoti assembles only 60 per cent of the cars it supplies to customers.

During the last 48 years, the PIL has assembled and marketed about 60,000 vehicles of different categories.