Source: Motor industry fumes over call to hike vehicle import duty – NewsDay Zimbabwe July 28, 2017
THE Motor Industry Association of Zimbabwe (MIAZ) has reacted angrily to Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda’s proposal for a 150% hike on import duty for second-hand vehicles.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda speaks at the Zimra parliamentarians workshop at Rainbow Towers Hotel yesterday
MIAZ president Luckson Gwara told NewsDay yesterday that the proposal to raise duty to 150% was not in sync with what they had crafted in the Motor Industry Development Policy, which is currently before Cabinet.
“I am not sure what way he (Mudenda) wants to go about it, whether it is in sync with what we crafted as the Motor Industry Development Policy, because I have not read his statements,” he said.
“But, our view is that, while we attend to this, we still need to allow people to be able to drive vehicles.
“Obviously, the vehicles they are importing are much cheaper than anywhere else and in any case, we are not building (sic) any vehicles, so it is more to do with controlling.”
Gwara said while they were crafting the Motor Industry Development Policy, some issues had been discussed such as the age of cars that were being imported and whether the used vehicles could be serviced locally.
He proposed that dealers should then be the ones to bring in second-hand vehicles, whose parts should be readily available locally in order to save on foreign currency.
Yesterday, Mudenda said he believed the poor deserved better and should be allowed to import vehicles without hassles upon getting a permit from the Industry ministry.
Mudenda on Tuesday caused an uproar after suggesting customs duty for second-hand vehicles be raised from the current 96% to 150% to cut on the country’s import bill.
COMMENTS
Judging by the number of cars packed in car dealerships all over the show it appears that we have more than adequate vehicles in the country for our current demand. Some of these vehicles spend 3 to 8 months or even more in these cars sales gathering rust. Imagine how much foreign currency is tied down to these idle investments. I think it’s time we put a stop to this wasteful foreign currency outflow by just completely banning the importation of used vehicles. With regards importation of new vehicle it would make sense to promote the importation of knocked down kits for local assembly and increase the duty on vehicle importation to a prohibitive say about 200 to 500% in order to promote our local industry and create jobs for our people. GOOD FOR THOUGHT