Car importers protested the hike in customs duties calling on the government for a response.
Lasha Darbaiseli, Chairman of the Auto Importers Association, said on Commersant radio that the main demand is to revise the adopted decision. More specifically, they are calling for the introduction of 1.5 GEL instead of the 4.5 GEL charged for customs clearance.
Once again, we understand the government's position. As citizens, we share it and request the rate be lowered to 1.5 GEL, as 4.5 GEL is simply too much. We cannot make such a drastic cut; this is a a huge sector that employs nearly 300,000 individuals, and these changes will affect each of them and their families.
Once customs duties hit 4.5 GEL, around 50% of car importers will exit the market. Regrettably, our country lacks jobs that will force these people to emigrate. Our post-COVID-19 pandemic research showed that roughly 30-40% went out of business. Most of them, along with their families, left the country and emigrated. The same will happen in this case. Car services and auto parts employees will also be impacted. Additionally, without foreign currency influx, the lari will not regulate and will start losing its value causing product price hikes. Therefore, no matter how much we'd like to reduce prices, that's just not how the economy and business operate. Business is a chain, and then it becomes impossible to fix things," stresses Lasha Darbaidze.
He believes that precisely the restrictions and bans cause the aging of the vehicle fleet and another restriction will utterly collapse the industry. Moreover, Lasha Darbaidze wants to know how much the environmental situation to actually improve after the technical inspection.
"Customs clearance has already increased in price once, and instead of 50 tetri, it now costs 80. Technical inspection has been added to this. It turns out that 5% of «the Secretaries of the Central Committee' are forced to drive cars, while 95% who need to support their families are deprived of their source of income. There is no answer to the question of how much the ecology will improve after the technical inspection," Lasha Darbaidze points out.
