The opposition party’s strategic director said the implementation of a 12-year ceiling on the life span of vehicles on roads here will “victimise” hundreds of thousands of Malaysians, who rely on nine-year loans to finance their rides, widely seen as a necessity rather than a luxury.
“With the implementation of this life span limit, families in Malaysia will have to take on new debt to buy a car after three years,” he said in a statement.
On Sunday, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi was reported to have announced that the Road Transport Department (RTD) is working towards a final decision on the probable life span of cars in Malaysia.
National newswire Bernama quoted him as saying that it might soon be necessary to set an age limit on cars in the interest of the public.
Abdul Aziz was citing a suggestion by Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (Miros) Director-General Professor Dr Wong Shaw Voon, who claimed at a separate event last Friday that cars that are older than 12 years were not safe to be on the road.
Rafizi, who is also Pandan MP, said today that not only will such a ruling force the middle class into debt, but the poor will also suffer as many depend on second-hand cars bought on extended loans.
“For those who borrow to buy these cars, the implementation of a vehicle life span means that their cars are illegal in the eyes of the law and cannot be used, when they are still paying for the loan,” he said.
Rafizi said the main problem for the debt culture surrounding car ownership in Malaysia is the existence of excise duties that exceed 100 per cent of the prices of cars sold in the country.
He added that the excessively high excise duties give car producers and distributors the opportunity to hide behind the country’s tax structure to grab higher profits compared to other countries.
“Because the implementation of excise duties and issuance of excise duty rebates are not transparent, the profit margin structure on each car that is bought is also not transparent.
“As a result, the price of cars in Malaysia remains among the highest in the world,” he said, referring to a recent ranking by American automotive website Jalopnik, which rated Malaysia as the second most expensive country in the world to buy a car.
Rafizi said the government must first remove excise duties, as suggested in PKR’s automotive policy, so the public can know the actual price of cars sold in Malaysia compared to other countries and avoid profiteering by car makers and distributors.
“A policy to limit the life span of cars can only be implemented after the price of cars in Malaysia go down on par with the same models sold in other countries,” he said.
---themalaymail
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