Viral Post About Ratan Tata Not Allowing Automobile Export to Pakistan Is False

Tata Motors has repeatedly clarified that the viral message is a hoax.

Social media users are sharing a text message related to the late industrialist Ratan Tata, shortly after his demise on 9 October 2024, praising his patriotism and refusal to conduct business in Pakistan.

What does the message say?: It tells a story about how back in 2008, shortly after the terror attacks in Mumbai on 26 November, Tata refused to meet Pakistani businessmen after launching a tender to remodel all hotels under the group's Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL).

• When this happened, former Union Minister Anand Sharma requested him to meet them, but Tata replied, "You could be shameless, I am not," the message reads.

• It adds that a few months after this incident, the Pakistani government had allegedly placed an order for Tata Automobiles' Sumo vehicle, but "Ratan Tata refused to ship a single vehicle to that country," out of "respect and love for motherland that Ratan Tata has (sic)."

The Quint also received a request to verify this claim on its WhatsApp tipline.

We found that different versions of this post have been shared on the internet since 2013.

(Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the claim is a hoax.

• Tata Motors has denied the claim on their X (formerly Twitter) handle.

• Additionally, Pakistan does not import automobiles from India.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a keyword search using the term 'Tata Sumo Pakistan' on Google for more information.

• This led us to Tata Motors' X account, which had replied to a query about the claim back in 2019.

• The company said, "the WhatsApp message is a hoax," clarifying that they did not export cars to Pakistan due to the country's import policy.

A further search on this account showed us an older reply from 2013, where another user had asked about the story in the claim, under a post by Tata.

In 2013, too, Tata Motors had said that "automobiles are in the restricted list" for trade between India and Pakistan, so the question of the latter having placed an order for Tata Sumo "does not arise."

Have the rules changed?: To see whether India exports automobiles to Pakistan in 2024, we looked for official India-Pakistan trade-related documents on Google.

• The search took us to the Pakistan government's commerce website, which carried their Import Policy Order of 2022, updated in April of that year.

• The 'Prohibitions' section of this policy document mentioned that all "goods of Indian or Israeli origin or imported form India or Israel" were banned, with the exception of therapeutic drugs which were imported from or originated in India.

Some context: Until 2019, Pakistan prohibited the import of 1209 goods or products from India, which included "vehicles other than railway."

This list of products, which can be seen under 'Appendix G' of the 2016 Import Policy of Pakistan, was also referred to as the 'negative list' that Tata Motors mentioned earlier.

Following a terror attack on a convoy of Indian Army vehicles in Pulwama in February 2019, India imposed 200 percent customs duty on all products imported from Pakistan.

Later that year in August, New Delhi revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Owing to these "tensions" over Kashmir, Pakistan decided to suspend all bilateral trade between the nations, formally ceasing all imports and exports.

However, limited trade of essential goods, such as pharmaceutical products and raw materials, has continued unofficially, reported Pakistan Today.

Conclusion: The viral message is a hoax, as automobiles from India are banned from import in Pakistan.

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