Inspecting cars abroad is absurd, costly
Jun 09, 2010
EDITOR—The Uganda Motor Vehicles Traders and Dealers Association (UMIDA) is upset by the failure of various policy makers to streamline their policies and operations.
EDITOR—The Uganda Motor Vehicles Traders and Dealers Association (UMIDA) is upset by the failure of various policy makers to streamline their policies and operations. Today, the car trade industry is faced with a devastating business constraint which has its roots in the failure of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to streamline the inspection of imported used cars for purposes of ascertaining their roadworthiness.
Currently, under the UNBS rules, an importer of a used car must produce a certificate of roadworthiness from the exporting nation. This policy is antagonistic not only to the individual importer’s business objectives, but also makes no sense to the Government’s objectives of national development. Owing to the requirement that an imported car’s road worthiness be determined in the exporting nation, UNBS simply facilitates the exporting nation to extract money from the car importer! UMIDA wonders whether this policy is a deliberate move by the UNBS to boost the already developed exporting nation, or if the policy isn’t a microcosm of the greater policy rot of the day. Does the UNBS
share the Government objective of national development? Just consider this! Car inspection in Japan is approximately $300 per car. Since there is only one inspection centre/company in Japan, each importer finds himself going through the hustle of loading every car onto a carrier, straight to the inspection centre. This costs a further $60-100 depending on the distance. Therefore, pre-shipment inspection of any used car costs between 360 and 400 dollars. Ironically, this cost does not include the ever rising labour costs. The process is not only costly and laborious but is also lengthy. This slows down the importation process.
Every year, Uganda imports more than a million used cars. At the loss rate of $400 per car to foreign economies, UMIDA wonders what UNBS is up to! Road worthiness inspection is not an activity Uganda cannot perform locally. This is an avoidable revenue haemorrhage which the UNBS is inadvertently causing to Uganda’s young economy. Since the importer must make profit so as to keep in business, the inspection costs are calculated against the cost price of the vehicle and the taxes to determine the final selling price. No wonder, used cars are becoming unaffordable to the ordinary Ugandan! Besides, Uganda is grappling with a high rate of unemployment. How many young professionals; engineers, mechanics, economists and others would be employed if road worthiness inspection was to be done locally? Ironically, the foreign inspection of used cars (inspection before shipment) is purely a Ugandan policy. It is shocking that our nation legislates to benefit foreign economies! It is a shame to the UNBS! UMIDA agrees that our country should not be reduced to a dumping ground for the developed world and therefore we support the idea that UNBS should ensure that all imported cars pass the road worthiness test before they are permitted into our nation.
However, we feel it would highly be beneficial to our economy if the inspection process was done here. We call upon the UNBS and the Government to examine the logic of our argument. All policy stakeholders ought to be decent enough to revise the policies regarding pre-export inspection of cars. If this is done, the whole process will cease to constitute a nuisance to individual car importers and to the national economy.
Nelson Tugume Owaarwe
Chairman UMIDA
Currently, under the UNBS rules, an importer of a used car must produce a certificate of roadworthiness from the exporting nation. This policy is antagonistic not only to the individual importer’s business objectives, but also makes no sense to the Government’s objectives of national development. Owing to the requirement that an imported car’s road worthiness be determined in the exporting nation, UNBS simply facilitates the exporting nation to extract money from the car importer! UMIDA wonders whether this policy is a deliberate move by the UNBS to boost the already developed exporting nation, or if the policy isn’t a microcosm of the greater policy rot of the day. Does the UNBS
share the Government objective of national development? Just consider this! Car inspection in Japan is approximately $300 per car. Since there is only one inspection centre/company in Japan, each importer finds himself going through the hustle of loading every car onto a carrier, straight to the inspection centre. This costs a further $60-100 depending on the distance. Therefore, pre-shipment inspection of any used car costs between 360 and 400 dollars. Ironically, this cost does not include the ever rising labour costs. The process is not only costly and laborious but is also lengthy. This slows down the importation process.
Every year, Uganda imports more than a million used cars. At the loss rate of $400 per car to foreign economies, UMIDA wonders what UNBS is up to! Road worthiness inspection is not an activity Uganda cannot perform locally. This is an avoidable revenue haemorrhage which the UNBS is inadvertently causing to Uganda’s young economy. Since the importer must make profit so as to keep in business, the inspection costs are calculated against the cost price of the vehicle and the taxes to determine the final selling price. No wonder, used cars are becoming unaffordable to the ordinary Ugandan! Besides, Uganda is grappling with a high rate of unemployment. How many young professionals; engineers, mechanics, economists and others would be employed if road worthiness inspection was to be done locally? Ironically, the foreign inspection of used cars (inspection before shipment) is purely a Ugandan policy. It is shocking that our nation legislates to benefit foreign economies! It is a shame to the UNBS! UMIDA agrees that our country should not be reduced to a dumping ground for the developed world and therefore we support the idea that UNBS should ensure that all imported cars pass the road worthiness test before they are permitted into our nation.
However, we feel it would highly be beneficial to our economy if the inspection process was done here. We call upon the UNBS and the Government to examine the logic of our argument. All policy stakeholders ought to be decent enough to revise the policies regarding pre-export inspection of cars. If this is done, the whole process will cease to constitute a nuisance to individual car importers and to the national economy.
Nelson Tugume Owaarwe
Chairman UMIDA