Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this
mk-logo
News
Car APs: Umno's money for nothing
Published:  Sep 15, 2012 8:47 AM
Updated: 6:46 AM

YOURSAY 'They merely use it as an excuse to reward their cronies... We all know who gets the lion's share of the APs. It's better than printing money.'

Mukhriz ignorant of car market, says Pakatan

your say Fair Deal: International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Mukhriz Mahathir understands perfectly well the car market. He is just trying to lie to the rakyat who he thinks are uneducated, simple minded and stupid.

Unfortunately, most Malaysians now are highly educated and won't be taken in by BN politicians that easily any more.

His comments on Pakatan Rakyat's policy on auctioning the approved permits (AP) is in  the hope that  he BN can continue to deprive the rakyat billions of ringgit in revenue every year and give it instead to Umno's cronies, who will secretly give back a share to the party.

Azlan Ahmad: Mukhriz does not  know how the AP works in detail. He only knows one thing which is close and dear to him - that is, his big brother is involved in the AP business and therefore he does not want to do anything that will jeopardise the gravy train, of which the AP business is one among many.

Goh Yu Loong: Please do not underestimate Mukhriz's knowledge of the AP mechanism. How can he not know when his father is the main culprit for introducing the APs? They merely use it as an excuse to reward their cronies.

I once jokingly asked my Malay staff how come he is still struggling to pay off his low-cost housing loan. I told him to apply for two APs and sell them off. This should be enough to pay off his entire loan.

If the APs are meant to benefit the bumiputeras, then the poor Malays should be given at least one or two APs to ease their financial burden.

Instead, we all know who gets the lion's share of the APs. It is better than printing money.

Swipenter: Mukhriz only understands how the APs benefit the cronies, but not how it burdens car owners.

We are all paying sky-high taxes when buying cars just to protect national carmaker Proton and to enrich a few cronies.

The end result is, relative to our earning power, we are forced to pay off our car installments over a period of seven to nine years, which is longer than the economic/useful life of the car.

That is why we are seeing so many old cars on our roads. The high cost of our cars is really a huge burden on many, many Malaysians but a huge bonanza to the AP cronies.

They enrich a few at the expense of many. Those of us who are saddled with car and housing loans would understand what I am saying.

What PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli is proposing is a God-sent gift; cheaper but better cars and more revenue going to the government in the long run.

KSC: There is another aspect to this issue. More often than not, the AP holder is a middleman who skims off the amount for doing nothing while the actual salesman's profit is very much reduced.

Hence with competition, the middleman will be eliminated and the salesman can therefore earn more, plus increased sales.

Kgen: APs are now given to selected cronies who create monopolies on certain imported makes of cars to earn obscene profits.

If they are auctioned, the wider distribution of APs will bring down prices by breaking up the monopolies. How difficult is this to understand?

Our car prices are obscene. For the least taxed locally assembled car under 1,800 cc, the overall tax from the table shown is 92.5 percent.

This means that for a RM100,000 car, RM48,000 goes to the government as tax.

This is indefensible in a country where public transport is so poor that most people are forced to buy cars.

It is a huge burden on the middle class just to protect our local car industry and enrich some cronies.

Ipoh2: The crux of the issue is that the government would earn the money from open auctions, not middlemen as is happening now.

People would be able to import the cars themselves, and not go through middlemen who become filthy rich just for having the required APs.

People would decide how much they are willing to pay during an auction.

Irrespective of whether the amount is higher or lower, at least the money goes to the government.

FellowMalaysian : Instead of paying the government auction levies, an alternative that is easier is to eliminate the APs altogether, and middlemen will have to charge a flat import duty for CBUs.

An example is Singapore where goods are tax-free; certificates of entitlement (COEs) are imposed and are auctioned off monthly as an effective way to curb and control the number of new vehicles introduced into the island.

Here, there is no such prohibitive control and by gradual removal of excise and sales taxes, paying for even a 30 percent import duty instead of AP fees will be anxiously welcomed by the people.

Het : There are two types of people in this world - those who talk sense when they open their mouths, and those who talk like Mukhriz.

Not Confused: Like father, like son. Mukhriz's father has become a senile octogenarian who is in denial over the impact his autocratic rule has had on the governance of Malaysia.

His son is following in his father's footsteps. Really sad indeed.


The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

 

ADS