SBMA imposes $100 import fee per vehicle

In a further measure to discourage used vehicle importations, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has imposed a $100 import permit fee per vehicle.

In a talk with reporters, SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said that the SBMA imposed the $100 import permit fee since October last year.

Thus, from October to December 2005, the SBMA has been able to collect P11 million already for the importation of 2,200 units.

Arreza clarified that the SBMA did not issue any import permits from June 2004 to October 2005.

However, even so, Arreza said, there were still some 3,000 outstanding permits.

Previous to Arreza’s administration, he revealed, the SBMA did not charge anything for the import permits.

He assured that importations of used vehicles into the Subic Freeport has significantly slowed down with majority of the 59 companies importing used vehicles already inactive or winding down their activities.

The SBMA, Arreza assured, had also imposed more stringent qualifications in granting import permits by ensuring that importers must have adequate backyard space for their importations.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that while used vehicle importations are still allowed into the Subic Freeport, such vehicles are not allowed within the Philippine customs territory.

Removal of the used vehicles from the Subic Freeport would subject the vehicle to the corresponding duties and taxes.

Local motor vehicle manufacturers had complained about the used vehicle importations through the Subic Freeport and several other ports in the country because of its devastating effect on locally-assembled new vehicles.

After several years of legal maneuvering, the government has finally gotten a legal ruling from the SC that definitively resolved the issue.