Reconditioned private car sales are on the rise due to fall in its prices by 10 to 20 per cent thanks to depreciation of the Japanese yen and no imposition of new tax on car import in the current fiscal year.
However, rise in private car sales has concerned transport experts over the worsening traffic jam as a large number of vehicles have already taken up city's inadequate road space.
Sources said fall in Japanese yen has been continuing for last one year which helped lower the import costs of most of the reconditioned cars from Japan.
They said as accessible value of the reconditioned cars depends on the cost of buying, the value of each imported car has dropped by five to seven lakh in recent months.
According to reconditioned car showrooms and buyers, 2013 and 2014 model of Premio, Allion, Axio of Toyota are now being sold at the prices of at least 20 per cent less as comparing to the prices a year earlier.
However, Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association (BARVIDA) claimed that the flow of sales of the reconditioned cars remained the same as before despite the fall in yen.
There is no link of imposition of tax on the private cars with sales record, they added.
The government has imposed 100 per cent supplementary duty on import of personal transport more than 1500 CC along with 45 per cent customs duty in the fiscal year 2009-2010 to discourage the people to use small-sized vehicles like private cars.
Initially, the imposition of tax was reflected in the sales of the reconditioned vehicles, but it started increasing again after a break.
After 2009, officials said, no new tax was imposed on private car import since then.
Both BARVIDA leaders and officials admit that sales of private cars go up for non-availability of comfortable mass transport system.
According to BARVIDA data, 33,178 reconditioned cars were sold in the FY 2008-2009 which came down to 32,225 the following fiscal year.
The downward trend continued in the next three years when sales were recorded at 19,823, 9,588 and 7,353 respectively.
However, sales of cars started increasing to 18,413 in the FY 2013-2014, but dropped to 11,060 in the just-concluded FY 2014-2015 due to political turmoil.
"The upward trend was supposed to continue in the last fiscal year, but was hampered due to political unrest from January to March," said Mohammad Abdul Hamid Sharif, president of BARVIDA.
He said sales of private cars never fall or stop anywhere in the world and it will continue in the country as well, although different measures are taken.
"People will always buy private cars, even though the government will try to discourage them in using those. But our context is different as people across the world use cars once a day or a week but we use five to six times a day finding no options for public transports," he told the FE over phone.
The BARVIDA leader also claimed that private car sales are not responsible for deterioration in city's traffic gridlock rather it is related to inoccupation of the low capacity road.
The city has now 8 per cent road against standard need for 25 per cent. According to unofficial statistics, 7 per cent of inadequate road is not now fit for traffic due to illegally grabbing for car parking and small traders etc.
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