Times Of Swaziland: WE’RE NOW IMPORTING EXPENSIVE CARS - DEALERS

WE’RE NOW IMPORTING EXPENSIVE CARS - DEALERS
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Stanley Khumalo on 07/02/2023 08:49:00


MANZINI – This means we are now importing expensive cars, says some
dealerships.
Mohsin Huzaifa said importing newer models into the country meant that they were
paying more as most were expensive and there was the addition of the taxes paid
for the vehicles. Huzaifa said the costs of bringing the vehicles into the
country meant that they had to transfer them to consumers. He said there was
also a challenge which had been brought by the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted
in the hike in freight costs. “If you look around, few garages have many cars
at the present moment. Most of these now buy one or two as it is expensive,”
he said. The businessman also bemoaned what he termed a mess caused by some
unscrupulous businesspeople who caused problems for them and then left the
country.
Meanwhile, Communications Officer in the Ministry of Finance, Setsabile Dlamini,
said the increase in Eswatini’s share of total intra-SACU imports from 9.6 per
cent in the revenue sharing framework for 2022/23 to 10.8 per cent in 2023/24
was as a result of such measures. This means that the measures that the ministry
has been implementing in order to enhance intra-SACU imports have started paying
off.
increased
It is worth noting that the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts for
Eswatini increased by 102 percent in 2023/24 from E5.8 billion in 2022/23 to
E11.75 billion.  This, according to the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg,
was the highest share that the country had ever received from the regional bloc
and the factors that contributed were higher than projected outturn of the
2021/22 Common Revenue Pool (CRP) and the surplus emanating from that will be
paid together with the 2023/24 revenue share and also 25 per cent increase in
the projected size of the CRP for 2023/24 compared to 2022/23.