Old Car For New

Carrot to spur motor industry: Govt to consider dangling RM5,000 discount if you sell your old car to buy a new one

ALOR SETAR: Sell off your old car and buy a new one at RM5,000 discount — that can be a reality if the proposal by the International Trade and Industry Ministry is accepted by the Finance Ministry.

Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the proposal, which would encourage consumers to buy new cars, had been submitted for consideration in the mini budget, to be unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on March 10.

He said the incentive was to spur the country’s automotive industry in the wake of the global economic slowdown.
If the proposal was accepted, owners would be able to sell off their cars of 15 years or older and buy new ones at discounted prices.

“The RM5,000 incentive can be in the form of reduction in excise duties and sales tax or other mechanisms,” he told reporters after meeting Umno leaders here.

He said at the moment there were more than one million cars aged 15 years and above in the country.

The proposal would benefit consumers as they would have the incentive to buy new cars; the automobile companies, as there would be demand for new car models; and the government in the form of motor vehicle tax collection, he added.

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said the ministry had applied for an additional allocation of RM5 billion under the mini budget to spur growth in the industrial and manufacturing sector.

Muhyiddin said the allocation was to provide soft loans and additional grants for the small-and-medium enterprise (SME) as well as various investment incentives.

He said at the moment, there were some 556,000 SMEs in the country, many of which were affected by declining demand, forcing some of them to retrench workers.

He said so far, the SME sector had retrenched about 2,000 workers.

“We are also planning to provide grants for companies to train their workers. This is one of the measures to avoid retrenchment,” he said.

The ministry also planned to provide soft loans with a low interest of two per cent to companies intending to expand their operations, he added.

Muhyiddin said the ministry would also suggest a two per cent corporate tax cut — from 25 per cent to 23 per cent — as an incentive for companies to continue their operations in this time of economic slowdown.
- Bernama