Import and sales of reconditioned cars, which make more than 80 per cent of the country’s privately-owned automobiles, have declined by more than 50 per cent in the past three months, dealers said.
Procurement data of used cars from Japan in the first month of the current fiscal year showed that the import was the lowest compared to similar period of the past three years, car dealers claimed.
Sources at the Japan Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry informed New Age that only 1,468 units of used cars had been shipped from Japan to Bangladesh in July, 2010.
Quoting Japanese official car export data, the chamber said imports of Japanese used cars by Bangladesh were recorded at 2,581 in July, 2009, some 1,635 units in July, 2008, while it was 1,731 in the same month of 2007 and 1,160 in 2006.
‘Car sales have dropped by at least 50 per cent in almost every showroom in the past three months,’ said Habibullah Don, president of the Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Importer and Dealers Association.
The association now groups more than 500 importers who had seen booming business in the previous two or three years with all time high imports and sales, said Don.
Availability of easy car loans to executives and businessmen and a demand from middle-class families to buy their first car caused the boost in car sales in the previous couple of years. ‘But recently business is dull,’ said Don
The abrupt increase on duty on used cars imposed in the current budget and stronger yen had raised the cost of imported Japanese used car by around 50 per cent compared to it price a year ago, he pointed out.
Citing an example, he said popular used car Toyota Corolla X model now costs Tk 15.5 lakh compared to Tk 10 lakh in mid 2009.
Abdul Haque, managing director of one of the largest car showrooms, Haq’a Bay, said opening letter of credits for car imports by different banks indicate drastic decline in procurements of used cars by local importers.
‘Ever worsening traffic congestions in city roads has also been injuring the desires of city dwellers to own a car,’ Haque, also a director of the country’s apex trade body, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, pointed out as another major reason for the declining sales and imports of cars.
