Hamilton proposes model year discrepancy options

JUCDA president plans to monitor gov't policies

Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer

High on the agenda of the returned president of the Jamaica Used Car Dealer Association (JUCDA), Lynvalle Hamilton, is the continued monitoring of policies implemented by the G9overnment that will affect the used-car dealer industry.

Hamilton, who has held the position since 2010, was re-elected at the group's annual general meeting held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, recently.

He stated that not only will there be monitoring of the policies, but also those that will affect customers as a result of increased used-motor vehicles prices.

Hamilton further pointed out that JUCDA is working on a project that is to be given top priority - the contentious issue of the model-year discrepancy.

"The model-year discrepancy is a situation where we have vehicles coming out of Singapore, where the Government granted licence for them as one year and may be a year or two after, you find the valuators saying that the vehicles are another year, that they are older than they were initially determined to be by the Government," Hamilton explained.

"We're having a discrepancy where some of the valuators are saying that the vehicles are much older," continued Hamilton.

Two-fold solution proposed

He said a two-fold proposal had been proffered in an attempt to rectify this situation.

"We had put forward two proposals. The first one is that since the vehicles are already here and they were already determined by the authorities, we could let them remain as is and the vehicles that came in from 'X' time to 'X' time there is a certain court order that could be put in place," he said.

"However, there is another that we put forward for discussion. We would compensate the consumers, because seeing as though we paid more duties on the vehicle, we should have some form of concession to recoup. Let us say we decide to compensate the consumer, the Government must grant us licence to bring in older vehicles, waive the SCT on vehicles that we have on the wharf - something. So we are in dialogue with the Government," Hamilton said.

Among Hamilton's other objectives is a campaign which will allow more persons to be cognisant of the used-car dealer industry. "We want to look at public awareness. We want to really make the public aware of information relating to the industry that we think the consumers ought to know, and this will enable them to view us in a different or more positive light," he said. He also mentioned that plans are in the pipeline for the launch of a new website for the organisation.