Car buyers in Malaysia made the most of the government’s decision to exempt passenger cars from sales and service tax (SST), as part of efforts to stimulate the auto industry and the country’s economy affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
First announced on June 5, 2020the SST exemption was extended three times and ended the June 30 last year. However, while many made reservations to secure the exemption, deliveries have not kept up, prompting the government to allow the SST exemption to apply for any car booked before the June 30, 2022 deadline, as long as be registered before March 31, 2023.
Perodua is one of several auto companies with a large order bank on its hands, and during yesterday’s outlook press conference, the automaker revealed how it plans to tackle the issue. “Currently, the total outstanding reservations that we have is around 220,000 units. It’s a good problem, but it’s still a problem. We cannot sleep at night because 220,000 customers are waiting for their cars,” Perodua Chairman and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said.
“First, our plan is to make sure that by the end of March, customers who booked because of the Penjana no-sales-tax program get their vehicles. Because after March 31st the sales tax will be imposed. However, based on our current research and planning, we have found that it is difficult for those customers to get all of their cars by March 31. There will be an indirect effect, but I have mentioned many times that for Perodua, we will comply with the exemption) ”, he continued.
“For example, if a customer booked (during the SST exemption), if we have to absorb sales tax, even if delivery is after March 31, we will. We’ll make sure. I think because customers are very important. They reserve our cars during the time when there is no sales tax, and it is our problem that we cannot deliver the car for March, therefore we have to comply (the sales tax exemption),” Zainal explained.
“The problem is that when there is a complete model change or a price difference, we have to manage this carefully. I don’t have the numbers right now on how many customers are affected and we have to wait until the end of March to see how many customers still haven’t received their cars but booked with zero sales tax, we’ll make an announcement later. later. Rest assured, we’ll make sure they also enjoy any sales tax benefits if they go through with their reservation,” he added.
Perodua also said that it will give priority to the 220,000 customers waiting with its planned production of 330,000 units this year, although it is not certain when the tax-free order bank will be emptied. For those who have reserved the old axia and are curious if they can convert their booking to new model D74A that recently opened for reservationthe automaker also gave a response.
“Current Axia customers waiting for their cars are encouraged to switch to the new model if they can’t get their old stock car. We expected that there would be a few thousand reservations where customers would not get the old Axia because the production of the old Axia ended at the end of this month (January) and the new Axia started production at the end of January,” Zainal said. .
“However, when they convert, we will make sure that whatever benefit customers were supposed to receive at the time, we will subsidize (the sales tax) even though the new Axia has a different sales tax. For example, the sales tax of the old Axia may be RM1500 while the new one is RM2000, so we will subsidize it. Because customers who convert to the new Axia are loyal to Perodua”, he continued.
