SUCCESSIVE administrations have traditionally seen motor cars as ‘luxury’ items and therefore taxation policies by both sides of the political divide have been very unkind to cars. It has been politically easy to tax them.

To ensure that this luxury policy sustains itself, successive governments have maintained a system that can only be described as blatantly immoral. While our leaders decide that Jamaicans must all pay excessive high import duties on cars, the same leaders give themselves a ‘bly’. The result is that we pay between 60 per cent to 180 per cent while politicians and a few select groups pay zero to 20 per cent.

Why would decision-makers want to change a system, which allows them to pay $3.5 million for a SUV that the rest of us pay $6.0 million to own. Why would anyone want to give up this heavy luxury discount?

The other outrageous situation is that come election season, political parties are allowed to import a large number of cars duty free. Why should a political party, which does not even have to prepare an annual financial statement, be given this ‘privilege’ while the rest of us pay the full price. It seems like politics is the best business to be in — duty-free cars, no annual returns, no tax on profits, no tax auditors.

The import duty policy needs urgent revision. Jamaica has one of the highest motor vehicle import-duty structure in the Caribbean, possibly the world, and this has facilitated government’s maintenance of the untidy ‘concession’ policy where select groups and individuals receive discounts.

This has resulted in huge bureaucracy in government to support the policy and corruption on the part of those who ‘qualify’ for these benefits. It is an open secret that individuals and organisations that receive concessions often trade them. But then why not? After all these benefits are extremely valuable.

Why should a travelling officer of the government receive a discount on his car import duty but not the travelling officer of a private sector company? Why should a car rental company pay a much lower duty rate than an individual or any other company?

It is estimated that when all the various duty concessions are combined with all the full duties paid for motor vehicles, government collects only 10 per cent. If this is true then a 15 per cent to 20 per cent tax across the board for all vehicles would yield the government more revenue, be simpler to manage, have the benefit of attracting less corruption, and would be seen as fair to all.

Our government has shown boldness in many areas of managing the economy and should demonstrate similar boldness in this sector by removing the inequities, which have existed for much too long.

Andrew Jackson is managing director of used car company Jetcon Corporation and a member of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association.