Domestic truck and bus manufacturers have decried the worsening incidence of undervaluation of imported completely built-up buses (above 6 tons) from China by as much as $ 50,000 each unit.

The Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) has brought this concern to the Bureau of Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales, who also called a meeting among truck assemblers, bus importers and the Board of Investments.

TMA director Vicente T. Mills Jr. said that TMA has asked BoC to ask the country’s commercial attaches in China to get the right valuation of the imported brand new CBU buses to compare their prices versus the transaction value declared with the BoC.

The World Trade Organization recognizes only transaction valuation but Mills said that BoC has agreed to their proposal to get the right value of these buses in China and compare with the transaction value of the importers because that is crucial in determining whether the imported buses were undervalued or not.

He noted that undervaluation averages $ 25,000 per unit but can go as high as $ 50,000 per unit.

"We saw documents showing undervaluation of imported full sized buses with an average undervaluation of $ 25,000 per unit" Mills said.

The price of imported CBU buses range from $ 70,000 to $ 100,000 per unit depending on the make and capacity of the bus.

For the last 3-4 years, there were an estimated 500 units of brand new buses that came in from China thus, the proliferation of new buses plying the streets in Metro Manila under the following Chinese brands as Kinglong, Yutong, Higer and Golden Dragon.

Last year, sales of full-sized buses from the formal sector have reached 729 units or 14.8 percent higher than 635 units in 2007.

Comparatively, the registered buses with the Land Transportation Office reached 21,000 units but industry sales reached only 635 units in 2007.

This means the formal local industry’s sales account for a small percentage of the local bus market while the rest are imported brand new CBU from China, or reconditioned second hand buses or the so-called chop-chop vehicles.

Locally-assembled buses is sold between P4.5 million to P5 million per unit while the imported units have lower prices at P4 million.

Among the local bus makers, Columbian Motors (Nissan Diesel) accounts for 38 percent of the market followed by Pilipinas Hino Inc. (PHI) with 36 percent, Isuzu Philippines Corp. and Man.

Mills, who is president of PHI, said that while there is not a huge market for buses in the local there is a good replacement market because the local market is being served by a 20-year old bus fleet.

Source : english.chinabuses.com

Editor : Shelly

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Tags: Undervaluation China CBU Buses