Imposition of the RM10,000 fee for each Approved Permit (AP) on AP holders will prevent selling of the permit that had caused the government to lose millions of ringgit in tax revenue.

mukhriz mahathir gaza fund 010208 serious "The government will get some tax revenue from the car business but gained nothing when people make money by selling APs," said Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Mukhriz Mahathir.

Going by the 2008 statistics, 381,000 cars were sold in the country, of which 10 percent or 38,100 cars were imported used cars which needed APs to import them.

If the government had charged the RM10,000 fee for every car at that time, it would have earned RM381 million in tax revenue, he said

The revenue could have been used for the people's benefits, he told reporters in Johor Baru today.

Mukhriz, who was asked on the 2010 Budget proposal to charge RM10,000 for open AP holders for every AP, said the fee will not have much impact on imported cars as they number between 38,000 and 40,000 units a year.

Open AP holders comprise sellers of second-hand, luxury and tuned-up cars.

Mukhriz said prices of the imported cars will be determined by market forces.

NAP to be unveiled this week

mercedes benz International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed will elaborate on the AP issue when unveiling the National Automotive Policy soon, he added.

In a related development, Mustapa said he will be announcing the findings of the revised NAP later this week.

"I will announce the findings in two three days. We will decide on the exact date tomorrow. There's no problem to announce the results this week," he said.

Mustapa had said recently the NAP review findings might be announced early next month, at the latest, pending some fine-tuning by the ministry.

- Bernama