Change our wasteful ways
Published:Saturday | March 5, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Dennis Morrison's article in The Sunday Gleaner of February 27 was concise and accurate. The Jamaican economy is built on the automobile. At first, we borrow US dollars and import a car. The Government takes 150 per cent duty, the dealers take 25 per cent of the total, the banks finance the purchase at 20 per cent of the total, and the insurance companies take 10 per cent per annum.
The whole thing stimulates the economy. The only problem is to pay back the US dollars borrowed. This will have to be forgiven.
To correct the problem, we should place a quota on imports based on the previous year's sales, allowing no more than a six-month inventory.
Second, we should remove all the incentives to purchase new motor cars. There should be no duty concessions for government employees, and if it must be, it should be every seven years instead of three years, or 200,000km. Duty concession makes traders out of the buyers who can sell their three-year-old car for what they paid for it with the duty concession. Yes, we are driving over a cliff, but who will change our wasteful ways?
I am, etc.,
KEITH HOBBINS