6 700 cars imported in 12 months
MANZINI – In the past 12 months, about 6 700 import vehicles have been brought into the country.
According to impeccable sources, this is a significant decline from the number of grey cars that were being shipped into Eswatini before 0 0, which were said to be over 000 per annum.
The vehicles were imported into the country between -anuary 0 and December of the same year.
The decline in the import of the grey cars, which are usually sourced from -apan, Singapore and the Unit ed .ingdom, follows that a number of import dealerships had ceased to function after accumulating ta[ arrears with Eswatini Revenue Ser vice ERS .
On the other hand, ERS confiscated bluebooks registration papers from some import car dealerships who were still operating while in arrears, which resulted to the disadvantage of some motorists.
This resulted in some motorists who bought vehicles on terms being caught in the ‘crossfire’, as they could not get ta[ discs for their vehicles, which are mandatory for a vehicle to be driven in the national road network.
In a case where a motorist is buying a vehicle in terms, from an import car dealership, an amount eTuivalent to
0 per cent of its value is paid in ad vance. This is before the automobile is released to the aspirant owner. In most instances, the 0 per cent is paid within a year.
Outstanding
*iven that a number of the import dealerships were in arrears with re mitting ta[ to the ERS, communica tion was said to have been established between the two parties, wherein the former relayed that it was seeking to recoup the outstanding balances.
However, some import car dealer ship proprietors decided to vacate the country without settling their debts. In a bid to ensure that no more money is lost through the proprietors desert ing the kingdom without paying what was due to the ta[man, the ERS is said to have taken bluebooks from some of the import car dealerships that were in arrears.
After gaining possession of the bluebooks, the motorists who bought their vehicles in terms were altered into agents to collect and remit funds to the former.
In essence, this means that instead of paying the outstanding balance to
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the import dealerships, the motorists were ordered to settle it with the ERS so that it could recover some of the outstanding ta[.
This, however, has resulted in some motorists failing to get ta[ discs which are a prereTuisite for an au tomobile to use the national road network, while others have hit a snag in changing the ownership of their vehicle.
)or a vehicle to get a ta[ clearance, the motorist must submit the blue book with about E 50 to Eswatini Revenue Offices.
This has resulted in ERS locking some of the business premises. To this, Director of Communications at ERS 9usie Dlamini said ³On an ongoing basis, when enforcing the ta[ laws, we do seize documents which include car registration documents and any entity can be appointed as an agent to collect and remit funds to the ERS.´
Debts
This, he said, forced motorists who had bought vehicles in terms to pay their outstanding debts with ERS.
Dlamini, last year said when they assessed the arrears, they were set at around E 0 million.
He said they did not confiscate car registration documents to force mo torists to pay their outstanding debts, but appointed them as agents as per the provision of the ta[ laws.
He gave a background to the issue and said the ERS did a compliance in itiative to enforce compliance on the grey import motor vehicle after it was noted that they were not compliant 3(5&(17$*( 2) ,03257 /(9< )R% 9$/8(
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under declaring with the ta[ laws. Dlamini said the initiative revealed that most of the players in the in dustry were not compliant. He said additional assessments were raised to those who were found to be un der declaring.
The director of communications at ERS said worth noting was the fact that most of the dealers were selling the vehicles in terms where a deposit of about 0 per cent of the sale price was paid while the rest was paid in instalments.
He said after doing the assessments, the cases were handed to the debt division for further action of ERS and in the process of collecting the debts, it was established that some entities had outstanding balances on the purchased motor vehicles.
Balances
Dlamini said the above entities were appointed as agents to collect and remit the funds to the ERS, which was in line with the ta[ legislation. He said several letters were written to the buyers who were identified to have outstanding balances.
It is worth noting that the import car dealership industry had been marred with challenges. On October
, 0 0, the Minister of )inance, 1eal RiMkenberg, in 3arliament said ³*overnment only collected E . million ta[es from import ve hicles despite that it is a E . billion industry.´
The minister said this was despite that the industry imported, on av erage, 000 vehicles per year, of which half the volume was older than seven years.
RiMkenberg said this industry grey car second hand motor vehicle was valued at about E . billion and this amount left the country. RiMkenberg said by introducing the Used Motor 9ehicle Import 3ermit 1otice of
0 0, government was trying to get that amount to be used within the country or in the region so that the country benefits from SACU.
RiMkenberg said about E 0 million more shall be accrued by implement ing this strategy. He e[plained that the challenge with the second hand import motor vehicle industry was that cash was used mostly.
The Used Motor 9ehicle Import 3ermit 1otice of 0 0 was seeking to curb all registered import car dealerships, estimated to be over 50, to bring into the country only 000 vehicles per year while individuals buying the vehicles abroad direct from some of the suppliers ± would only be permitted to import 000 vehicles.
On the other hand, this publication on August , 0 0 reported that some import car dealerships in the country were ripping off emaSwati through allowing aspirant motorists to buy the vehicles in terms and repossessing them after si[ months, if the client failed to settle his her account despite having paid over 0 per cent of the amount.
Repossessed
It was reported that failure to ad here to the contract signed by the credulous consumer’s and some of the ‘Dubai dealerships’, resulted in the vehicle being repossessed while also the buyer loses the deposit paid for the automobile.
/eading to this, on 1ovember , 0 , this publication reported that locals were conned thousands of Emalangeni daily when buying sec ond hand import cars as some deal erships would rewind the odometer readings.
The motorists were hoodwinked into believing that they were being sold almost new vehicles as they were shown vehicles with low mileages. This is because a vehicle with a low mileage is believed to be newer.
Some of the import dealerships yards found vacant
E[treme Cars
SaMawal Motors
Super Motors
3unMab Motors
Umer Motors
Others had their billboards re moved and no name or their con tacts were found.