Pakatan Rakyat janji turunkan harga kereta...

Pakatan Rakyat akan menjadikan pengurangan harga kereta - yang dianggap barangan keperluan - sebagai sebahagian daripada manifesto pilihan raya umum akan datang.

Pengarah Strategi PKR, Rafizi Ramli berkata laporan Kajiselidik Pendapatan dan Kemudahan Isi Rumah 2009 yang baru dikeluarkan Jabatan Perangkaan menunjukkan hampir 72 peratus isi rumah menggunakan kereta sedangkan 53 peratus isi rumah Malaysia berpendapatan di bawah RM3,000 sebulan.

Peratusan yang tinggi itu katanya, berpunca daripada kegagalan Dasar Automatif Negara yang digubal BN pada tahun 2006.

Pada masa sama katanya, hutang kereta persendirian meningkat sebanyak RM16 bilion atau 14 peratus dalam masa 18 bulan sejak November 2010.

Ini membuktikan ia adalah isu pilihan raya yang perlu diberikan perhatian oleh parti-parti yang bertanding, kata Rafizi.

"Keadaan ini membayangkan bahawa hutang kereta yang disebabkan harga kereta yang tinggi adalah satu beban utama pada rakyat," katanya.

Menurut Rafizi, harga kereta kini tinggi kerana rakyat membayar duti eksais, cukai import dan cukai jualan apabila membeli kereta.

Harga tinggi kerana cukai, duti eksais

Pengenalan duti eksais - sekurang-kurangnya 60 peratus daripada harga kereta - pada masa itu dilakukan untuk mengimbangi cukai import yang dikurangkan kerana Asian Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), katanya.

Rafizi mendakwa tindakan itu dibuat setelah kerajaan antara lainnya menerima nasihat daripada syarikat perunding Ethos Consultancy yang didakwa mempunyai kaitan dengan Ketua Pemuda Umno, Khairy Jamaluddin.

"Beliau (Khairy) perlu kongsi dengan kita apakah pertimbangan pada masa itu yang membuatkan kerajaan perkenalkan duti eksais," katanya.

Duti eksais ke atas kereta juga kata Rafizi, ibarat mencukai rakyat atas pembelian barang keperluan seperti makanan, air dan elektrik.

"Anda (kerajaan) tidak sepatutnya menghukum rakyat dengan kutip cukai atas barang keperluan.

"Kalau ada ruang fiskal (belanjawan) yang perlu ditutup, kerajaan perlu cari mekanisma lain," katanya.

Justeru katanya, Pakatan akan melihat kemungkinan menghapuskan duti eksais secara berperingkat untuk mengurangkan harga kereta.

ADUN Pantai Jerejak, Sim Tze Tzin dalam sidang media sama berkata pimpinan muda PKR akan membuat jelajah keliling negara untuk berdialog dan menerangkan perkara itu kepada orang ramai bermula 5 Ogos ini.

"Kita cadangkan dialog peringkat kebangsaan.

"Kita mahu dengar (cadangan) daripada rakyat dan kumpulan berkepentingan seperti Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA), berkenaan perkara ini," katanya.- malaysiakini


 

Pakatan pledges to slash car prices...

Pakatan Rakyat's election pledge will include abolishing excise duties on cars to reduce household debt and increase disposable income.

According to PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli (left), a whopping 72 percent of households currently own cars and are paying almost double the actual value of the vehicle due to excise duties.

Rafizi said this was an easy and viable strategy to increase disposable income, which is among Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's main goals.

"Between raising household incomes and reducing outlays (on cars) which improves a household's disposable income, any economist will tell you its easier to reduce outlays," he told a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya this morning.

Also present were PKR communications director and Sri Setia assemblyperson Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Pantai Jerejak assemblyperson Sim Tze Tzin and PKR national strategy and policy bureau secretary S Gobi Krishnan.

70 percent too taxing

The matter, Rafizi said, had been discussed at the highest level of PKR and Pakatan Rakyat and the details would be officially announced by the top leadership in due time.

Citing the recently published 'Household Income and Basic Amenities Survey Report 2009', Rafizi said the move would greatly alleviate the people's financial burden as the report states 72 percent of households own a car.

Furthermore, he said, the debt due to car loans had spiked by RM16 billion or 14 percent within 18 months, up from RM118 billion in November 2010 due to the government's existing National Automotive Policy which was officially launched in 2006.

"The automotive policy by Umno and BN has caused car prices to skyrocket, causing debt that has to be borne by the people," he said.

At present, Rafizi explained, the cheapest tax imposed on vehicles such as the Perodua Kancil is 70 percent, of which 60 percent is excise tax and another 10 percent, sales tax.

The sum increases to 100 percent if the car is imported as it will incur an additional 30 percent import tax.

"So if you're buying a RM40,000 car manufactured locally, you're paying RM16,000 in taxes," he said.

Taking loans to fund taxes

Pre-empting allegations of Pakatan populism, Rafizi said the main purpose of the move was to prevent people from having to take up loans to finance the government’s hefty taxes.

"Collecting taxes from car prices is not sustainable as car loans will balloon and the household debt as a percentage of gross domestic product will balloon as well. 
"The household debt now is almost RM800 billion, that's double the national debt," he said.

Rafizi said Pakatan projects that the federal government to lose about RM8 billion annually without excise duties - and this shortfall could be addressed by other means.

"If there is a fiscal gap, we can use other mechanisms (to retrieve taxes). You should not penalise people by collecting taxes through necessities such as a car," he said.

He added that PKR would push with its new manifesto, just as it did with the with the campaign to abolish the PTPTN student loans to add political pressure, since the government was in the midst of reviewing the National Automotive Policy.

Rafizi fingers Khairy

Rafizi also took a swipe at Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who debated the PTPTN issue with him, saying that Khairy was in some way responsible for the artificially high car prices under the National Automotive Policy.

"When the National Automotive Policy was being drafted, Ethos Consultancy, which has its origin with Khairy was consulted. Even though he eventually left, either way, he was instrumental in drafting the policy during former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's time.

"So, Khairy has a lot to answer as well.... He should share insight into what was the consideration in 2005 (when the policy was drafted) that caused the government to introduce such high excise duties that are more regressive on the people," Rafizi said.

He explained that in 2005, when Malaysia signed the Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), the country was required to reduce its import taxes. As a result, then premier Abdullah's team decided to introduce a high excise tax across the board as replacement.

"The same consulting group is now in the Government Transformation Programme and Economic Transformation Programme, so most probably the same kind of people will be involved in the review of the Malaysian Automotive Policy.

"So, before they get another hand to create the kind of mess they created seven years ago, let's hear from Khairy and Ethos Consultancy," he said.

Rafizi added that the party welcomes feedback from the people and would begin its roadshow on this matter on Aug 5.- malaysiakini

KJ - Cheaper foreign cars will kill Proton...

While acknowledging that PKR's promise to make cars affordable will benefit millions of rakyat, Pemuda Umno chief Khairy Jamaluddin believes such a policy may spell the doom of national car maker Proton and deprive the government of lucrative income.

"If we abolish import and excise duties (on imported cars), it may impact negatively on Proton," Khairy told reporters at a press conference in Bangsar tonight.

He argued that Proton has people working for it as well as its vendors and distributors, which number in the tens of thousands.

"It is not that we want to protect Proton forever, but such sweet promises... without proper planning may spell economic catastrophe."

Khairy also argued that apart from bringing harm to Proton, the opposition's cheap car promise will also deprieve federal government coffers of about RM4.6 billion in revenue annually from the scrapping of import and excise tax on foreign cars, something which he said Pakatan has yet to explain how the country is going to absorb.

The Rembau MP opined that the cheaper car promises cannot be taken in isolation but had to be taken in the context of many other promises such as abolishment of tolls and others "sweet promises" in the Pakatan manifesto.

He argued they have not explained how all these is going to be financed.

Earlier today, Pakatan leaders announced their policy of abolishing import and excise tax on imported cars to make it affordable to the rakyat.

PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli also directly accused Khairy of being responsible for the rise of car prices via his involvement in the formulation of the National Automative Policy during former premier Abdullah Badawi's tenure.

"That's not true, I see that his statement is way off the mark," countered Khairy when asked about the accusation.

The Umno Youth leader further dismissed the opposition pact's cheap car policy as another populist promise.- malaysiakini

Cheaper cars under Pakatan

Perbandingan Spek & Harga Pasaran Proton Preve VS Toyota Vios VS Honda Civic di Malaysia

Toyota Vios - hanya 514,000 Baht (RM51,400) di Thailand murah kerana bebas cukai AFTA,di Malaysia harganya RM 88,827.60

cheers.