Car dealer boss expects political stability

Business
Mitsuyoshi Okutsu

CAR dealer Ela Motors expects political stability and leadership to drive the economy forward this year.
Chief executive officer Mitsuyoshi Okutsu said: “Challenge to economic slump will continue due to uncertainty of the global Covid-19 situation, world natural resource demand, natural resource projects in Papua New Guinea and so on.
“We expect political stability and leadership to drive the economy.”
Okutshu said the vehicle demand for 2020 was similar to 2019.
The Government in its 2020 Budget announced the reduction of import excise on imported brand new and used vehicles to make it vehicles affordable.
“The market condition is always changing apart from duty movements, that is very difficult to forecast the market, but I hope strong leadership of the government is important,” Okutsu said earlier.
The Excise Tariff (2020 Budgetary) (Amendments) Bill 2019 which takes effect Jan 1, 2021 include:

  • New car (60 per cent to 20 per cent);
  • Used car (80 per cent to 20 per cent); and,
  • Sports and racing cars: new car (110 per cent to 40 per cent) and used car (120 per cent to 40 per cent).