Most car owners unaffected by ownership transfer fee hike — Mulki

AMMAN — Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Monday said that high ownership transfer fees only apply to cars with large engines, while the owners of cars with smaller engines pay JD50 or JD100. 

Speaking during a meeting with representatives of the trade and services sectors, Mulki said the recent hike in car ownership transfer fees was part of the government’s financial and structural reforms, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Some 85 per cent of cars in Jordan have 2000cc engines or smaller, and their owners pay JD50 or JD100 in transfer fees when selling the vehicle, the premier said.

Mulki stressed the government’s eagerness to find solutions to the problems facing all economic sectors, including the trade and services sector.

The government seeks to provide a proper competitive environment that ensures the growth of business that in turn expands the Treasury’s revenues, he added. 

Meanwhile, trade and services sector representatives presented their demands to the premier and discussed the challenges they face in boosting the business environment. 

Several ministers and officials attended the meeting. 

Car dealers recently held a sit-in outside the Prime Ministry to protest the government’s June 22 decision to raise fees on imported used cars.

Importers and dealers of used cars in Jordan’s only free zone in Zarqa have halted sales of vehicles in protest against the government measures, which they say would cause a slowdown in the domestic auto market.

In a bid to raise more revenue under a new deal with the International Monetary Fund, the government has decided to reduce tax exemptions on imported used cars and increase the ownership transfer fees of private vehicles.

Jordan Free Zone Investors Commission President Nabil Rumman told The Jordan Times previously that government revenues from the automobile sector range between JD1.3 million and JD1.5 million a day.

But Finance Minister Omar Malhas said last Thursday that despite “a slight drop” in used car sales in July and early August for example, sales at the free zone are “picking up and the situation is improving”.