The authorities will allow automobile importers to check their cars for missing parts amid extensive allegations of lost accessories of imported vehicles, a minister said.
“We would not like to encounter these incidents [of loss of items of imported automobiles] at the port anymore. So, we’re arranging for the automobile owners or agents to examine their imported cars as it arrives at the harbour,” union minister for transport U Nyan Tun Aung said at a press conference held at Myanma Port Authority headquarters.
Automobiles can be tested again with the help of a three-member probing group when it reaches the warehouse after landing at the port, the minister said.
U Nyan Tun Aung said the ministry will take responsibility for the losses of vehicle parts while in port warehouses.
However, the port authorities said that the importers are unable to provide any documents that list the number of accessories and the original condition of the imported car.
They said the importers think that the loss of accessories occurs at the port, but the department finds the condition of imported cars don’t match the condition described in auction documents.
“There are five steps in between a ship carrying automobiles arriving at the port to giving it to the owner. When a ship docks we make take photos to record the condition of the vehicles on the ship and then send the vehicles to the warehouse. We take photos there again,” U Kyaw Myint, director general of Myanma Port Authority, said.
“Losses in the port is only 15 percent,” he claimed.
“The owners who pick up imported automobile should avoid stopping carelessly outside the delivery area after collecting the car and car agents should offer better services,” an official from the Internal Revenue Department said.
However Automobile Importers and Manufacturers Association Chairman U Htay Aung said 50 percent of those “lost” or “missing” cases happen at the port.
A total of 231,608 vehicles were imported from 2011 to 2013, according to the Myanmar Port Authority.
