Due to the increasing number of unlicensed vehicles, the regional government authorities drafted a new car import policy on the issuance of car licenses in Yangon

YANGON Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein said that the regional government is working to draft a new car import policy on the issuance of car licenses in Yangon due to the increasing number of unlicensed vehicles, vehicles registered in other regions and expired vehicles.
The news came out of the 11th regular meeting held on 27 October between the Private Sector Development Committee led by Vice President U Myint Swe and businesspersons in Yangon.
“Yangon Region government has currently drafted the new policy in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce,” said U Phyo Min Thein.
Effective action will be taken against unlicensed vehicles including buses, private cars and taxis.
“The government will effectively control unregistered vehicles in the future. There are two kinds of unlicensed vehicles. The first one is illegally imported cars and the second one includes some imported cars under the consignment system. Authorities forced owners of unregistered cars to pay a certain fine after investigating against them through records of traffic lights. The traffic lights point out the car which has two different number plates. Thanks to vehicle registration records of the Road Transportation Administration Department, traffic lights immediately give the signal when passing a car with the recorded number plate but the kind of it is different.” Arrangements are being made by the city authorities to increase the wheel tax and parking tax for cars in the Yangon area, though it has been registered in other regions. The removal of expired vehicles will also be carried out by the authorities systematically.
In addition, city authorities will urge users to choose cars produced in the country such as Nissan and Suzuki rather than imported used cars. From his point of view, local car dealer Ko Ayaykyo said that technology is needed to control illegal cars. A wheel tax and parking tax should be collected for cars registered in other regions. The reason is that foreign countries also collect different kinds of taxes from car owners and spend this kind of revenue income on promoting public transportation, including paving new roads, expansion and upgrading of old roads and installation of road safety facilities.
He went on to say that the current drafting policy is suitable for Yangon but not in other regions. The supervisory committee for motor vehicle importing announced its new rules that only left-hand drive cars manufactured from the 2014 model year onwards will be allowed to import into the country from 2018 on wards.

(Global New Light of Myanmar: http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/city-authorities-draft-new-car-import-policy-issuance-car-license-yangon/ )

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