Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association (BARVIDA) said the import of reconditioned cars has fallen by 75 percent in the last six months due to LC complications caused by the dollar crisis.
President of the organization Habib Ullah Don said this at a press conference on the proposed budget for the financial year 2023-24 at Dhaka Club on Tuesday.
He said most of the traders who deal with brand-new cars are directors of several banks. As a result, they do not face any problems in opening LC (letter of credit).
“But the traders, who import reconditioned cars for the middle class, have no bank. So due to the dollar crisis, they face a problem opening LC,” he said.
“Impact of this, only 2800 reconditioned cars have been imported in the last six months, where usually 10,000 to 12,000 cars are imported in six months. As a result, car imports have decreased by 75 per-cent,” BARVIDA president Don said.
Appealing for the withdrawal of supplementary duty on electric vehicles, he said the country is going through very challenging times due to the availability of fuel and the scarcity of foreign exchange.
“The problem slightly will be relieved by increasing the import and use of electric cars. Withdrawing 20 percent supplementary duty on import of electric vehicles to protect the environment and save foreign exchange,” Don said.
At the same time, this car dealer also requested that the registration of electric vehicles should be com-pleted within a day.
Habib Ullah Don said in response to a question that whether it would be logical to increase the import of electric cars in the current electricity crisis, that this crisis is temporary.
