Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno Youth Chief has proposed that first time car buyers earning less than RM4,000 a month can buy their first car without paying any tax.
“Taking into account this problem, UMNO Youth is proposing to the government a Youth First Vehicle Scheme where youths earning less than RM4,000 per month can buy their first vehicle without paying tax,” he said.
According to Khairy, the scheme is meant to lower prices of the said vehicle (motorcycles as well), but has to be a moderately priced locally assembled car or motorcycle. There were no mentions of car make or model, however.
First car schemes are not new, as neighbouring countries like Thailand also had a similar scheme, which unfortunately backfired and left with many defaulters. The seized cars were then auctioned off by the financing companies, which indirectly dropped the used car prices in Thailand. Besides that, the first car scheme in Thailand also meant that traffic congestion there got worse as there were even more cars on the road.
Back in Malaysia, the same situation could repeat itself, with more cars potentially being added to our already-congested roads.
