Malawi used car dealers cry foul over higher duties
Small-scale importers of used cars in Malawi are crying foul over current taxation imposed on imported vehicles.
Malawi has seen an influx of used cars, mostly imported from Japan. The vehicles are sold at low prices, some as cheap as 2,500 dollars apiece.
Lilongwe Used Car Association (LUCA) are up in arms over the higher tax measures and asked Minister of Finance Dr Goodall Gondwe to remove high taxes, arguing it will destroy their businesses or result in much higher prices.
Ernest Zinyemba Soko, speaking on behalf of the LUCA executive told Nyasa Times that the duties are too high for THE business to show a profit.
Soko said Malawi is a poor country and the citizens cannot afford to buy new vehicles from dealers such as Toyota Malawi, CEFAO, Tata, Automotive, Stansfield, Mahindra, or Mike Apple and Gatto.
The car traders claim the higher taxes will kill small-scale dealers who depend on vehicle sales for their livelihood.
Soko said the car dealer will meet to lobby government to rescue them from the new tax measures.
In parliament this week, Balaka North MP and UDF leader in the House, Lucius Banda, asked inance, Economic Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe to consider reducing import duty and excise on vehicles.
Gondwe said old vehicles are hazards to the environment..
Banda argued that the majority of the citizenry fail to purchase vehicles because of extra import duty costs which he said were prohibitive.
But Gondwe responded: “The import duty and excise on vehicles are designed to minimise air pollution. In some countries, even those in Africa, they ban importation of such cars or pay extra taxes.”
However, Banda maintained that the duty is so prohibitive, that it takes some people five years to pay by which time the vehicles have become ziphakasala (not road worthy).
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Lucious usatikwane wamva ndipo usamatichitise manyazi. Paja ndi iwe. Imenei nkhani osafufuza kae kuti maiko Enawa zikukhala bwanji. Nkha Iyi ndi ya kalekale mmalo moti uzilouza boma kuti lititane ma company ogulisa ma galimoto zoona uzikamba A mkutuzo
It is only in Malawi where you see someone earning less than $500 a month owing a car. That is why you see alot of unroadworthy vehicles on the roads since owners cannot even properly and timely service their cars. The government should just reintroduce city buses and we will not be desperate to buy or use our private vehicles to and from work. In other countries you may earn more than $2000 per month but still use public transport everyday.
kodi akudandaula ndi ogula kapena ogulisa. mmalo moti muziganiza zoti tingatani kuti tizipanga manufacture tokha magalimoto zaziiiiii. musatibowepo apa ife timaenda pasi olo kabanza iya. Bola atasisa msonkho wama minibus ndimvesa koma zoti apange benefit anthu ochepazo.
Munthu ungamakhale ku diaspora ndikumatumiza ma phokonyore a more than 8years Ndiye kutha maplan tu osangovwelera kumuzi bwanji kumakalima
How on earth can you compare Japan and Malawi thats total rubbish how many industries does Japan have yes they dismantle cars its simply because almost each and everybody can afford a car and as a result its always traffic jam and you compare such country with Malawi idiots the truth is duty is just way up needs to be reduced so much so that people can afford to import cars from outside the country even people living in diaspora are even finding it so hard to send cars back home please authorities do something over this issue
Indeed Malawi can not be compared to Japan that’s why it has become a dumping site for used vehicles.
Mukuona ngati boma lingamakhale busy ndiopepera zo. Is angoyanba business yogulisa tsabola bwa. Kodi bwanji a Malawi simunkonda Dziko lanu. Even ku Japan ko Munthu kuti ataye galimoto it’s expensive koyarira ndi kuno? School ndiyofunikatu
Only a Governt that is not for the people can respond like Gondwe. How many ppl in Malawi can afford to buy even a second hand car? very few, and yet high duties instead of making it softer, even free to allow many people to have accsess. DPP a club of Devils..
If you can not afford it why do you want it in the country?
Is it a must to have a car. Go to japan many people are rich but they use bicycles. Kuno mukangoba mma officemu basi muzitisokosera ndi maphokonyore otaidwa ku Japan. Govt MUST increase taxes for those vehicle. The govt in Japan even give money to those companies selling these phokonyores for helping govt dispose off those vehicles. Tamachangukani inu
he doesn’t think of us
how can he say that old cars brings pollution?
at his farm in mitundu he is also using old cars
why cant he start showing us example by buying new cars at his farm,
He has not said do not buy old cars, but pay Duty. So if he has old cars he paid duty for them.
Inuyo ndi amene simuziganizira ndi kukonda dziko lanu. The
Baba Gondwe, you must be getting something from New Vehicle Dealers for any car they sell, otherwise why the stance you are taking. Inu boma mumagula magalimoto kwa iwo, ifa anthu timagula magalimoto a second hand, our vehicles are small and don’t consume fuel like, hence our carbon footprint is also smaller. Environmentally, we are doing better than you, koma tikulephera getting cars hence we keep on running the very same old cars that are now an environmental hazard and an accident hazard, zonsezi chifukwa cha kuyipa mtima kwanu. Please allow us to import anything upto 1.6 litre engine duty… Read more »
Please quote pollution indices in Malawi Goodall you sub-human primate!! Malawi does not have enough industrialisation and development to have a pollution problem, NY. London, Bonn, Paris, LA yes- but not LL or BT!! Jeeez!! this is monkey economics!!! may you ALL ROT IN HELL!!!!!!! mother fornicators!!!