Tax hike for luxurious automobiles hits market

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Luxurious automobile sales plunged by 55.1 percent year-on-year in the first five months of the year as the special consumption tax collected from cars with engines larger than 2,000 cubic centimeters (cc) was increased to 130 percent from 84 percent, according to data.

This came after a large tax increase on such vehicels.

The number of cars sold in this segment fell to 1,931 from 4,303 in the first five months of 2011, according to data by the Automotive Distributers Association (ODD).

“The increase in special consumption tax from 60 percent to 80 percent for cars with engines between 1,600 and 2,000 cc, and from 84 percent to 130 percent for cars with engines larger than 2,000 cc in October 2011 was affective on the contraction [of the market],” bssaid Hayri Ece, the general coordinator of the ODD said.

“Demand may shift to cars with lower tax burden with regards to engine size given the current tax system,” he also said.

Sales of light vehicles fall
The number of cars and light commercial vehicles sold in the first five month shrank 20.8 percent to 269,565 compared with the same period last year. The rate of fall of sales figure was about 17 percent to 193,641 for cars and 29.2 percent to 75,924 for light commercial vehicles.

Cars with engines smaller than 1600 cc constituted 92.4 percent of all cars sold in January-May period this year. Nearly 179,000 cars were sold in this segment. This was followed by more than 12,700 cars between 1,600 and 2,000 cc claiming 6.6 percent of all sales. Car with engines larger than 2,000 cc took a mere 1 percent.