Barvida calls for vehicle registration through sales points

To put an end to the cumbersome vehicle registration process, vehicle importers and dealers have called for registration to be done through sales points.

In developed countries, including the UK, vehicle registration is completed through sellers – a system that should be introduced in Bangladesh as well, the Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Importers and Dealers Association (Barvida) said at a press conference in the capital today (26 April).

The association, representing 1,200 car traders, also called for eliminating "discriminatory policy treatments" against reconditioned vehicles, which have largely been imported from Japan over the past four decades.

For instance, it said the government considers the Japanese Yellow Book reference price plus dealer commission and local tax as the importer's procurement price, resulting in an assessed value around 20% higher than the actual procurement cost based solely on the Yellow Book price.

This inappropriate treatment leads to higher duties and unit prices – an issue not faced by brand-new cars, Barvida President Abdul Haque said at the press conference.

Earlier, the association submitted its written budget proposals to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), demanding duty rationalisation to make vehicles more affordable.

It advocated for greater affordability of microbuses to improve public transportation. 

For 10-15 seat microbuses, Barvida proposed withdrawing the 20% supplementary duty (SD) to reduce the total duty burden to 58.6%.

It also urged the government to lower the SD to 10% from 20% for importing smaller hybrid cars, alongside a request to redefine engine capacity slabs that determine duty rates.

Currently, hybrid cars with engines up to 1,800cc fall under the lowest duty slab. Barvida proposed extending this threshold to 2,000cc, along with a 10 percentage point cut in SD.

For hybrid cars above 2,000cc, the association requested an upward rearrangement of the slabs.

For fossil fuel-powered vehicles, Barvida proposed reducing SD by 15 percentage points for 1,600cc cars and by 250 percentage points for 4,000cc cars.

As Bangladesh moves towards graduating to a developing country, the demand for sport utility vehicles is expected to grow, and duty rationalisation would help boost sales and industrialisation, Barvida said.

It also called for customs duty on pickups and delivery vans to be reduced to 5% from 25%, to facilitate the transportation of daily essentials.

Additionally, the association proposed withdrawing value-added tax (VAT) for buses and ambulances.

Barvida Secretary General Reaz Rahman and Vice President Saiful Islam (Somrat) were also present, among others.