PETALING JAYA, 1 Apr: The implementation of the existing excise tax on all vehicles, including motorcycles, will be reduced to 20 percent when Pakatan Rakyat (PR) governs Putrajaya.
PKR Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli said that under the current Umno-BN administration, motorcycle owners have to pay an excise duty of 20 percent for engines with a size of 150cc and below and 30 percent for engine capacities exceeding 150cc.
“This means that for the cheapest motorcycle costing around RM5,500, the amount of tax charged is RM1,334 (excise and sales tax).
“This is more onerous when financial institutions do not offer loans to buy low capacity engine sizes because it does not have a good secondary market value.
“Therefore, purchasers from lower income groups have to borrow from shops selling motorcycles and bear interest rates as high as 10 percent,” he said in a press conference at the PKR headquarters this morning.
Therefore, to ensure justice for all by ensuring that those in need benefit from policies enacted, PR guarantees to reduce excise taxes on all types of vehicles.
He stressed that the proposal which has been reviewed by the PR Committee is to ensure that the rate of reduction of excise tax for motorcycles is the same as the rate of reduction in excise duties for cars, which is 20 percent.
He added that the removing the excise duty on motorcycles will not have a significant financial impact on the country because it is included in the calculation of the RM7 billion excise tax which will be replaced.
“PR has agreed to allocate RM2 billion a year (for the period from 2013 to 2017) to ensure that the country’s cash flow remains balanced with the elimination of the excise tax.
“The elimination of the excise duty which will be carried out in stages to reduce the price of cars and motorcycles is expected to help increase the people’s disposable income immediately without having a detrimental financial impact on the country,” he said.