FE Report

Vehicle importers and dealers Sunday criticised the proposed increase in import tax on reconditioned vehicles and claimed that would increase the price of lower end smaller cars, leaving the higher end bigger cars untouched.

"Vehicles of 1000-3000cc are usually affordable for lower end consumers, more as a necessity than luxury. But additional tax would simply make them unaffordable," president of Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association (BARVIDA) Habib Ullah Don said.

He was speaking at a press conference at a city hotel held to express their dissatisfaction over the proposed budget. The budget has ignored that cars over 4000cc are a luxury in real sense, he added.

Quoting the finance minister's budget speech, he said, the government vowed to discourage purchase of luxury cars by imposing the additional taxation, but the government seems to have wrongly defined the term 'Luxury,' he said.

According to him, smaller cars of 1000-3000cc are used for daily transportation and emergency goods transportation. They are needed in absence of adequate public transports and have given significant boost to our domestic business, the BARVIDA president said.

"Cars over 4000cc are considered luxury vehicles but that slipped out from the government's mind while proposing the additional taxation," the BARVIDA president added.

This raises questions over the government's intention, he said.

"This illogical import tax hike would make the smaller vehicles beyond the reach of common people, means 70 per cent less business in this industry," said BARVIDA general secretary Mahbubul Haq Chowdhory.

This would also lead to drastic fall in vehicle import, pulling the revenue 70 per cent down, he added.

"Severe business losses will also be witnessed in the related sectors, threatening large redundancies," BARVIDA general secretary added.

Terming the new cc-slab, determined by the government to impose further taxes 'unwise', he urged government body to reconsider and leave the lower end consumed vehicles from the burden of fresh taxes.

"Smaller cars and microbuses below 2000cc are necessity of our daily life and used for emergency business transportation. Government should encourage the purchase of those to increase mobility, which means improved productivity," he added.