Car importers accuse ADT of ‘blatant discrimination’
David Darmanin Four importers of used cars are claiming they are being discriminated against by the transport authority because they are not members of the Used Vehicle Importers Association (UVIA) and are being withheld with important information on their imports’ CO2 emissions.
The importers – Mosta Auto Dealer, Brincat Motors, Buges Auto Dealer and Galea Auto Dealer – accuse Transport Malta (TM) of instructing the company that certifies the emissions of used cars from Japan not to issue them with ‘adjusted’ emission figures.
The certification, issued by the UK state-owned Vehicle Certification Agency before the cars leave Japan, carries two emission figures: the one claimed by the car manufacturer, and a 10% increment over the manufacturer’s figure as an ‘adjustment’.
The aggrieved importers say VCA was instructed by TM not to issue them with the adjusted emission figure. Without the 10% adjustment, these importers risk being levied with the maximum tax applicable on the highest emissions possible – even on small and low-emitting vehicles.
It transpires that UVIA financed emission tests on selected models after the transport authority pointed out their imports’ emissions were higher than those claimed by manufacturers. These tests led to an agreement between UVIA and TM, to instruct VCA to add a blanket 10% increase on emissions on the certificates of all Japanese used imports.
But this agreement has left the non-UVIA members out in the cold. An email sent by VCA to Japanese auto suppliers in January revealed that the transport authority directed VCA not to include the adjusted emissions for the independent importers. In the email, seen by MaltaToday, VCA director Michael Mulvaney responds to a Japanese supplier’s enquiry by saying that the “matter is not negotiable with VCA as it is decided by an ADT (transport authority) directive.”
Kevin Brincat, representing the interests of the independent importers, said that if their cars are not issued with CO2 adjustments, “we may end up being charged the highest emission value applied to cars. We could end up paying the same registration fees that apply to a Ferrari on a Toyota Yaris.”
The authority is denying ever issuing the directive. “Whatever documented proof you may have, TM has no authority or desire to ask the foreign company VCA not to issue information for non-UVIA members. TM has no authority to make such requests,” a spokesperson told MaltaToday.
The TM spokesperson claims that it was UVIA that instructed VCA not to issue the adjusted emissions figures, and that since the association had paid for initial tests determining adjustment figures, it was within its right to do so: “We understand that UVIA members have paid for this service and have instructed the organisation who provided them with certification to only act on their behalf and not on behalf of others.”
Adding further insult to injury, TM is suggesting that the non-UVIA importers should finance their own tests, to agree with the authority on a new adjustment, so that the importers can get their own VCA certification.
Brincat said this measure “is only aimed at duplicating costs” for tests that have already been made by UVIA at the authority’s behest, and whose results have already been established.
It is unknown as to why the authority did not carry out the adjustment tests itself, and instead allowed UVIA as an independent business association to finance these tests and claim this information for itself.
While the importers are vowing to take legal action against TM, the authority told MaltaToday it was advised by its lawyers that accommodating the complainants’ requests would expose it to legal action by UVIA. “Frustrating as this simple fact may be, it remains a fact. Apparently our staff shared this frustration with Mr Brincat who now appears to be using this as some sort of evidence of misbehaviour by the authority or its officials,” a TM spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that TM does not regulate competition, but acknowledged that importers that are not party to the “UVIA arrangement” have a different cost base.
Membership with UVIA, which counts 28 used-car importers as members, costs €11,647 and is renewed annually for €1,165.
Additionally, Brincat accused Transport Malta section manager Gilbert Agius of withholding information that was previously publicly available, and then claiming it belonged to UVIA.
Brincat says importers were faced with no prospect but to become UVIA members, because the authority was not divulging the ‘registration values’ of the cars they wanted to import.
Registration tax is calculated by combining a car’s length and carbon emissions, with its registration value: a market estimate of second-hand cars’ going rate determined by the Finance Ministry.
Brincat claims Agius told him this information belonged to UVIA. “In itself this is highly contentious, since the registration values were previously publicly available on the transport authority’s website. But because UVIA members protested, they were taken off the web.”
“When I asked him how it was acceptable to allow UVIA, an independent association, to retain what is public information, his answer was that had we not decided to start importing cars independently, it would have been acceptable,” Brincat said.
“This treatment hints at discouragement to keep us from importing cars from Japan independently, or worse, at encouragement for us to join the UVIA.”
It was only under protestations of the importers’ lawyers that TM later released the list of registration values for the cars. ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt
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