The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

DUTY reductions on hybrid vehicles should also be offered on traditional autos that provide similar or better fuel efficiency, a leading dealer said yesterday, noting that the proposed 35 percentage point duty reduction on hybrid trucks was not enough to offset the high technology cost.

Ben Albury, general manager at Bahamas Bus & Truck, said the reduction of duty on hybrid trucks from 60 per cent to 25 per cent, as proposed in the 2014-15 Budget, would have no impact on his business whatsoever.

This was because the initial cost of the vehicles was too high. “The hybrid issue has not effect on me whatsoever. I don’t have any access to hybrid trucks. The initial cost is very high. Even with the reduction it’s still not enough to purchase those,” said Mr Albury.

“A hybrid is something that is supposed to give you excellent gas milage. That is supposed to be the reasoning behind the Government reducing duties to encourage people to buy hybrids, which would be better environmentally.

“The one segment they are missing is that the duty should be affected according to the gas milage, not necessarily by whether or not it’s hybrid, because now you have manufacturers producing more efficient engines that already compete, or in some cases may even beat a hybrid.”

Mr Albury added: “You pay a lot for the technology of a hybrid. That duty reduction is not enough to offset the cost for the technology, but if they understood the industry they would realise that there are some vehicles which use technology that provide a better fuel efficiency than hybrid.

“When you have the hybrid, you have the high expense of replacing the batteries, and then you have the issue of disposal of the batteries. Instead of having a segment dedicated to hybrids, they could in turn say any vehicle that would have fuel efficiency of this level or better. If a hybrid provides, say 50 miles a gallon ,but you have a regular gas model that also achieves that to better efficiency, then that should also benefit from that tax break.”

Commenting on the 2014-2015 Budget and the proposed 7.5 per cent VAT, Mr Albury said he was not in favour of any new taxes until the Government could demonstrate that it could “tighten its belt” relative to expenditure and introduce a Freedom of Information Act.

“Until they present a Freedom of Information Act and show that they can tighten their belts and reduce wasteful spending, me as a citizen and a business person will not agree to $1 more in taxes,” he said.

“Right now we are being taxed out of business. The Government has noted that the auto industry is the number one contributor to the Treasury. Some serious reform is need. We are drowning in taxes. It seems as though every time they need extra money, they stick it to us.

“There is a tipping point. There is not an endless supply of revenue. Given the sector contribution it’s absurd that they seem to be trying to put us out of business. It takes a lot of revenue to carry a business like this. I throw away parts every year that I did not sell and I cannot recover any duty on those.”