Date:
June 2003
More on the Motor Vehicle Industry
Last
week the Ministry of Finance was adamant that
the regulation scrapping the tax exemptions
enjoyed by Asian utility vehicles (AUVs) would
not be deferred a third time but would come
into force on 9 June. It did not. Upon his
return from Japan where he traveled as part
of the presidential party, Finance Secretary,
Jose Isidro Comacho said that BIR would wait
for Congress to pass its new law reforming
the excise tax on vehicles. The law before
Congress will shift the tax calculation to
a price-based system rather than engine displacement.
Not surprisingly, Japanese auto manufacturers
will be the ones to benefit while European
and American manufacturers – selling luxury
vehicles for the most part, will lose out.
The on-again / off-again approach to vehicle
taxation has only one certainty about it.
Vehicle prices will rise at some stage although
no one is certain as to when this is likely
to happen now. Congress is in recess until
the end of July. For consumers, the message
has been plain for some time “buy now and
beat the price rise!” It seems they have been
doing just that. Sales of new motor vehicles
jumped by 19.2% in the first five months of
2003. In number terms this equated to 37,985
units. Sales peaked in the February-March
period at which time sales were up by over
thirty percent.
|
How They Rank
(Jan- May 2003)
|
|
Company
|
Units Sold
|
Market Share
|
|
Toyota Motor Corp.
|
10,892
|
28%
|
|
Honda Cars Phils
|
6,696
|
17.6%
|
|
Mitsubishi Motors
|
6,431
|
16.9%
|
Sale
of commercial vehicles, which will bear the
brunt of any tax increase, accounted for the
bulk of sales – 30,692 units and representing
more than 80% of all purchases. Sale of sedans
declined by 18.1% to 7,293 units during the
period.
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