The duty reduction on electric vehicles in the last budget has not had any effect and up to now not a single high quality electric vehicle has been imported to the country, said Vehicle Importers Association of Lanka (VIAL) President Sampath Merenchige.
He said that this is because vehicle importers cannot afford the high price. “The duty reduction was first introduced only on brand new electric cars. Upon our request to extent that duty reduction on used electric vehicles the government amended the proposals to cover electric vehicle used up to one year. But this limit is not practical at all,”he said.
“We are now preparing after six months to gather all data with regard to electric vehicles imported to the country and convince the government that the budget proposals on electric vehicles has not been practical,”Merenchige said.
The 2018 Budget proposal to increase the leasing facility for electric and hybrid vehicles (Loan to Value Ratio (LTV) for hybrid vehicle financing from 50% to 70% and up to 90% for electric vehicles) too has had no impact yet. Because even though two months has lapsed since the presentation of the budget that concession has not been enforced yet.
“The reason for that is it has not been implemented from one place. The revised leasing facility only takes affect once it is notified to the Central Bank from the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank notifying the relevant financial institutions. The red tape and inefficiencies associated with those entities has delayed it.”
Merenchige also said that it’s a fact that people postponed their dream of purchasing a vehicle until the Budget was presented but today due to the extreme competition in the market, customers alleged that that many frauds take place at the point of sale of vehicles.
In general today there has not been a substantial change in vehicle sales to what it was in the past. But the pattern in vehicle sales has clearly changed with customers opting for vehicles of high quality imported from Japan.”
“Of course with tariff changes affected in the budget, the demand for vehicles such as the Wagon R which is under the 1,000 cc engine capacity has increased substantially.Similarly, the monopoly enjoyed by one company to import vehicles under the CC 1,000 engine capacity has now got disseminated among several vehicles trading organizations Island wide which is a very good trend. However the sales of over 1,500 cc hybrid vehicle which prices remain to be high has saw a steep decline,” Merenchige pointed out.
He said that today customers pay huge amounts to buy a vehicle and there are instances that they get cheated and their organization has been informed about such instances.
As a result of activities of a few fraudsters’ even honest traders face tremendous embarrassment, he said.
What could be frequently noticed these days is how popular vehicles such as the Wagon R are being advertised in websites and newspapers for low prices very much less than the market price.
This propaganda is carried out purposely by these fraudsters with sinister motives.
It must be understood that no established authentic motor trader will be prepared to sell their vehicles below the market price and incur losses.
What actually happens is, these crooks in the guise of genuine traders sell a few vehicles incurring a loss at first. After winning the confidence of the customers they then collect advances from a group of people with the promise of importing vehicles for these low prices and subsequently fled with the monies collected.
Some others import the vehicles on low promised price and when vehicles arrive at the harbour these scurrilous cheaters lament lame excuses and demand additional sums from the customer which ultimately results in having to pay a price in excess to the market value of the vehicle.
In addition due to the intervention of so called vehicle brokers and their deceitful activities both the customers as well as genuine vehicle traders have to face very embarrassing situations.
The Vehicles Importers Association intervened and has now worked out a scheme to overcome such fraudulent activities, firstly as a service to customer and also to iron out the embarrassment genuine vehicle importers undergo due to roguish activities.
“We are going to launch a program wherein customers will be able to identify us. We will display a board at every showroom of members’ of our association indicating our symbol and membership number.”
With this customers will be able to ascertain that the trader is genuine vehicle dealer and member of the VIAL. With this guarantee customers can without any hesitation go about their business.
As the first phase of the project we have issued display boards to the first 25 members who applied for it and on the demand the other members too will get the display board.
“Even from showrooms with no display board customers can still check the credentials of the vendor to ascertain whether they are a member of VIAL before going into business.” (MFJ)
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