Vehicle importers see sustained sales growth

MANILA, Philippines — Vehicle importers are confident sales will continue to accelerate this year while adjusting to the impact of higher excise taxes on automobiles.

Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID) president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said the higher excise taxes on automobiles, which took effect  last Jan. 1 under the new tax reform law, is seen to have a “short-run” impact on its member companies.

“With the short-run market adjustments due to TRAIN, we expect AVID members, which include the luxury brands, will have a good improvement or growth for this year,” Agudo said, without specifying the group’s growth target for 2018.

“We are now adjusting to the impact, the short-run impact of the implementation,” she said.

AVID is coming off a banner year in which combined sales of its member firms breached the 100,000-unit mark, driven by the strong consumer appetite ahead of the implementation of the higher excise taxes.

AVID sales reached 106,268 units in 2017, up 14 percent from the 93,192 units sold the previous year.

The group’s fourth quarter sales, in particular, increased 24 percent to 30,336 units from 24,438 units in the same period in 2016.

AVID has yet to come out with any sales report for the year, but reports from other leading automotive organizations have reflected the impact of the country’s new tax regime to the automotive industry.

A joint report released by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) as of end February showed that vehicle sales among its members in the first two months of the year improved by only 0.6 percent to 57,821 units.

For the month of February alone, sales declined 3.2 percent to 26,176 units from 27,040 units in the same month last year.

CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez earlier said CAMPI-TMA sales for 2018 could end flat.