M
MegaPyne
Guest
Dear Customers,
Good day to all of you.
This is Masao Kuwabara of Autorec Tanzania Limited and Yuichi Mizuno of Autorec Enterprise LTD. Japan.
Thanks to you, we have been operating business in Tanzania with lots of joy.
But there have been one serious problem that all the exporters, not only
Autorec, who do business with Tanzania are facing. We have been making
lots of effort to solve the problem, but it still remains in Tanzania.
Today, I'd like to figure out what is happening in Tanzania against used
vehicle trade. And we'll appreciate a lot if you'll give us your advices
on this issue.
As all of you are aware, IMPORT REGULATION against used vehicles have
been started in Tanzania since July 2006. Now if one will import used
vehicles whose age is exceeding 10 years, they will be penalised and
charged extra 20% excise duty.
This kind of regulation is found with several more countries. And as a
trader who do business with Tanzania, we respect the country's policy.
We shall not go against it or complain about it.
Therefore, since this policy started, we have been trying to adjust our
stock so that they will meet the demand of customers in Tanzania. Now
you may find many 1999+ vehicles in our stock.
But there's a serious problem with this policy as it has been operated
without clear definition about the AGE OF THE VEHICLES.
Let us share one sample story here.
1) Unreasonable penalties against some importers in Tanzania
Some time ago, one of the customer has bought JZX100 MARK II 1999model.
As this is of year 1999, definitely, the customer didin't have to be
penalised.
However, once the vehicle reached Dar es salaam port, the officers of
Tanzania's Customs have inspected the vehicle phisically, and finally
started saying that this vehicle is manufactured in 1995! They said so
because they found a small label on the vehicle's seatbelt saying "1995".
While the vehicle had come with the EXPORT CERTIFICATE issued and
authorised by Govenment of Japan and another certificate issued by JAAI
(Japan Automobile Appraisal Institute), both clearly indicates its year
as 1999, Customs office still insist that this vehicle is of 1995 and
thus should be penalised.
2) Manufactured year of seatbelt is not manufactured year of the vehicle
Actually, I have done some research about the label on the seatbelt
while I was still in Japan. I have communicated with TOKAI RIKA company,
who is the manufacturer / supplier of the seatbelts for TOYOTA's
products. They told me that the information on the label of the seatbelt
simply shows the manufactured year of the seatbelt itself!
In heavy industries such as vehicle manufacture, the products are
manufactured by cooperation of several companies so that they can reduce
the time and cost.
If it is about this MARK II, there should be seatbelt manufacturer,
window screen manufacturer, computer manufacturer, tyre manufacturer,
electric parts manufacturer, head lamp manufactuer, gasket manufacturer,
tube manufacturer, bolt & nut manufactuer and so on and so forth.
Each manufactured parts will be brought to the warehouse or the factory
of vehicle manufacturers (such as TOYOTA) and then a unit of vehicle
will be assembled there. It is very much possible for some parts to
spend several months or even more than a year before it will be
assembled to a vehicle.
Therefore, NO BODY CAN DEFINE THE AGE OF THE VEHICLE FROM THE SEATBELT
LABEL OR ANY OTHER PARTS OF THE VEHICLES.
Especially, with this JZX100 MARK II, it is totally wrong for them to
insist that this was manufactured in 1995. There's a clear reason to
deny their statement.
Why??? Because TOYOTA STARTED SELLING JZX100 IN LATE 1996!! THEREFORE,
IN 1995, THIS PARTICULAR MODEL DIDN'T EXIST EVEN ON CATALOGUES!!!
3) Definition of the vehicles�f �gage�h in Japan
Unfortunately, we learnt that there are some misunderstandings among the
Customs officers at the port about definition about the age of the
vehicles. Once they find the labels on the belts like this, they just
disregard the authorized documents and try to charge additional duty
against importers. And this is totally wrong.
Most of the vehicles we sell originate in Japan. Therefore, we process
the paper work and other arrangements based on the documents published
by the Government of Japan, Government of MANUFACTURERS' COUNTRY.
On this official document called �gExport Certificate�h, it only shows the
YEAR OF FIRST REGISTRATION of the vehicles. There�fs no information about
MANUFACTURED YEAR. This is how they control the product in Japan.
Information of manufactured year of the vehicles are not obtainable.
Both for domestic and oversea market, the used / new vehicles suppliers
do the paper work by using the data on this document because there are
no other official documents to identify the vehicles.
But to the Customs in Tanzania, it looks like this document is not
acceptable.
The differences on the definition of the AGE OF THE VEHICLES between
Tanzania and Japan is creating serious problems.
4) Autorec's efforts to solve this problem
One day, I have seen Commissioner for Customs and Excise face to face in
his office and discussed about this problem.
Unfortunately, there was no good solution on that day. Commissioner told
me that this is just a minor problem as these are only a few cases among
lots of cars. Instead, he promised me that he�fs going to solve these one
by one by communicating with the manufacturers in Japan to know the
actual manufactured year once the same case comes out.
Believing his word, when we had another problem with NISSAN MARCH,
chassis number k11-683281, I asked for his assistance. I was thinking
that he has a special relationship with the manufactures in Japan and he
can get such information that we can not get from them. However, instead
of contacting NISSAN MOTORS in Japan, he contacted D.T.Dobbie (NISSAN�fs
distributor in Tanzania). Once D.T.Dobie told him that they don�ft deal
in used cars, it was the end of his investigation.
We, Autorec, has contacted NISSAN MOTORS by ourselves, explained the
situation, and finally got a letter from NISSAN to identify the
manufactured year of this unit as an exceptional case (they normally
don't publish such information).
We brought this letter to the Commissioner and we believed that this
will be solved. But I was surprised to know the Commissioner's next
action. Once again, he sent this letter from NISSAN to D.T.Dobbie, and
once again, D.T.Dobbie told him that they don't deal with used cars, and
once again, it was the end of his investigation!
Why should he communicate with D.T.Dobbie while we brought him the
letter from original manufacturer? This is very much not understandable.
The case remained unsolved.
On another day, I received a letter from the Commissioner as a reply to
my letters. In that message, he was saying that now he understood that
the year on the seatbelt label is not the year of manufactured year of
the vehicle.
But still then, the people of the Customs are still judging the age of
the vehicle by checking the seatbelts and other small parts.
We have been fighting against this misunderstanding. We have been
sending letters to Commisioner of Customs and Excise again and again. We
send CC to TBS, TRA, Ministry of Finance, JAAI, Embassy of Tanzania in
Japan and Embassy of Japan in Tanzania. We have been appealing that the
importers in Tanzania should not be charged unfair duties from such a
misunderstanding.
Unfortunately, the Commissioner of Customs is not even replying to our
letters these days. Then we have also sent simillar letter to Parmanent
Secretary of Ministry of Finance. We also got diplomatic support from
Embassy of Japan in Tanzania, Japanese Ambassador has sent an official
letter to Ministry of Finance.
We are hearing that in August 2007, by sending letter to the
Commissioner for Customs and Excise, Ministry of Finance has advised
them to reconsider the definition of the age of the vehicle. But we
haven't seen any changes even after that.
We have been explaing all about this to the people mentioned above and
asking them to reconsider the definition of the age of the vehicle.
In January 2008, I have spoken to the people of Embassy of Japan once
again and asked for some diplomatic assistance because I was feeling
that the authority in this country is not interested to listen to the
voice of one small vehicle supplier.
This time, the First Secretary of Embassy of Japan has met Commissioner
for Customs and Excise by himself and discussed on the same issue.
According to the story I heard from the Secretary, the Commissioner has
understood the situation and promissed that he will work on this to
solve the problem.
Embassy of Japan has wrote an official letter once again to appeal that
the vehicles' age should be defined based on the official documents
because there's nothing else apart from that.
5) Problem for Autorec, the supplier
The issue itself is something between the importers and the Customs in
Tanzania. Therefore, the authority treat us as if we are just outsiders.
It seems as if they are saying that it is not something that a supplier
like Autorec should interrupt. But the situation doesn�ft allow us to sit
behind.
We explain the nature of these problems to the importers (our customers)
who actually suffered this problem and advice them to insist against the
Customs that they have the proper vehicle and official documents. But
instead of fighting against misunderstandings of Customs authority, some
of them actually turn around and start attacking Autorec, saying that
Autorec has sent fake documents / cars and cheated them! Some of them
even threaten us that they are going to take it a court case or attack
us through media.
This is totally not acceptable because Autorec has done nothing wrong in
the procedures.
Something more unpleasant for us is the fact that some of the Customs
officers, when they found the seatbelt label which has different
information with the official document, tell the importers that the
supplier (Autorec) has tricked them with forged documents!!! We totally
don't understand why people on a responsible position can say such a
irresponsible word without doing researches!!!! This is like exeucting
someone for guilty without properly checking!!! This is a clear
offensive disturbance to our business.
Or they are making us a scapegoat so that the importers will not
complain against them.
And as you can see, this is not a problem only for Autorec, but for the
used vehicle trade business as a whole.
Indeed, this is actually creating a very negative image not only to our
business but for the customers in Tanzania who intend to import used
vehicles from Japan. While we are shipping the right vehicles in right
procedure with proper documents (authorized by the Government of
manufacturer�fs country), some importers misjudge that we are cheating
them. This would be a serious damage to us if they continue doing this.
I understand the anger and disappointment of the importers who are
charged of the penalty of 20% against a vehicle they bought as less
10-year-old cars. But even if they attack us, there�fs no solution
because there was nothing wrong on our side.
Therefore, we need a fundamental solution.
6) Similar problem and its solution in Kenya
In Kenya, several years ago, they had the same problem as they also have
year regulation against used vehicle import.
Actually, the problem was more serious in Kenya, because once the
vehicle would be recognised as over 8-year-old, they are simply not
allowed to import that car. Therefore, the importers in Kenya had fought
against the authority by themselves. Of course, we, the suppliers, also
assisted them.
As a result, Kenya�fs Ministries, KRA(Kenya Revenue Authority) and
KBS(Kenya Bereau of Standard) have worked together to solve this
problem, and finally decided to judge the year of the cars based on the
information on the documents. Since then, there has been no such trouble
on the same issue in Kenya.
This story gives an idea that there's no solution so long as they
continue checking the seatbelts and other parts.
....Thank you very much indeed for reading such a long story. But I'm
sure this is a serious problem that any of you may also suffer.
We have been fighting against this, but as this is an internal problem
in this country, something that a foreigner can do is limited. As an
outsider, we cannot intervene the country's policy.
Not having good fruit after such a lot of effort, we are feeling as if
we are stucked.
Therefore, now we'll appreciate if you'll give us your ideas and view to
solve this problem.
Once again, thank you very much indeed for your understanding and
assistance to us.
--
Best regards,
Masao Kuwabara
Autorec Tanzania Limited
E-mail : masao@autorectz.com
Address : Room 425, 4th floor, Harbour View Towers, Samora Ave.,
P.O.Box 5023, Dar es salaam, Tanzania
Phone : +255-22-2124101
Fax : +255-22-2124103
Cell : +255-753-193583
Good day to all of you.
This is Masao Kuwabara of Autorec Tanzania Limited and Yuichi Mizuno of Autorec Enterprise LTD. Japan.
Thanks to you, we have been operating business in Tanzania with lots of joy.
But there have been one serious problem that all the exporters, not only
Autorec, who do business with Tanzania are facing. We have been making
lots of effort to solve the problem, but it still remains in Tanzania.
Today, I'd like to figure out what is happening in Tanzania against used
vehicle trade. And we'll appreciate a lot if you'll give us your advices
on this issue.
As all of you are aware, IMPORT REGULATION against used vehicles have
been started in Tanzania since July 2006. Now if one will import used
vehicles whose age is exceeding 10 years, they will be penalised and
charged extra 20% excise duty.
This kind of regulation is found with several more countries. And as a
trader who do business with Tanzania, we respect the country's policy.
We shall not go against it or complain about it.
Therefore, since this policy started, we have been trying to adjust our
stock so that they will meet the demand of customers in Tanzania. Now
you may find many 1999+ vehicles in our stock.
But there's a serious problem with this policy as it has been operated
without clear definition about the AGE OF THE VEHICLES.
Let us share one sample story here.
1) Unreasonable penalties against some importers in Tanzania
Some time ago, one of the customer has bought JZX100 MARK II 1999model.
As this is of year 1999, definitely, the customer didin't have to be
penalised.
However, once the vehicle reached Dar es salaam port, the officers of
Tanzania's Customs have inspected the vehicle phisically, and finally
started saying that this vehicle is manufactured in 1995! They said so
because they found a small label on the vehicle's seatbelt saying "1995".
While the vehicle had come with the EXPORT CERTIFICATE issued and
authorised by Govenment of Japan and another certificate issued by JAAI
(Japan Automobile Appraisal Institute), both clearly indicates its year
as 1999, Customs office still insist that this vehicle is of 1995 and
thus should be penalised.
2) Manufactured year of seatbelt is not manufactured year of the vehicle
Actually, I have done some research about the label on the seatbelt
while I was still in Japan. I have communicated with TOKAI RIKA company,
who is the manufacturer / supplier of the seatbelts for TOYOTA's
products. They told me that the information on the label of the seatbelt
simply shows the manufactured year of the seatbelt itself!
In heavy industries such as vehicle manufacture, the products are
manufactured by cooperation of several companies so that they can reduce
the time and cost.
If it is about this MARK II, there should be seatbelt manufacturer,
window screen manufacturer, computer manufacturer, tyre manufacturer,
electric parts manufacturer, head lamp manufactuer, gasket manufacturer,
tube manufacturer, bolt & nut manufactuer and so on and so forth.
Each manufactured parts will be brought to the warehouse or the factory
of vehicle manufacturers (such as TOYOTA) and then a unit of vehicle
will be assembled there. It is very much possible for some parts to
spend several months or even more than a year before it will be
assembled to a vehicle.
Therefore, NO BODY CAN DEFINE THE AGE OF THE VEHICLE FROM THE SEATBELT
LABEL OR ANY OTHER PARTS OF THE VEHICLES.
Especially, with this JZX100 MARK II, it is totally wrong for them to
insist that this was manufactured in 1995. There's a clear reason to
deny their statement.
Why??? Because TOYOTA STARTED SELLING JZX100 IN LATE 1996!! THEREFORE,
IN 1995, THIS PARTICULAR MODEL DIDN'T EXIST EVEN ON CATALOGUES!!!
3) Definition of the vehicles�f �gage�h in Japan
Unfortunately, we learnt that there are some misunderstandings among the
Customs officers at the port about definition about the age of the
vehicles. Once they find the labels on the belts like this, they just
disregard the authorized documents and try to charge additional duty
against importers. And this is totally wrong.
Most of the vehicles we sell originate in Japan. Therefore, we process
the paper work and other arrangements based on the documents published
by the Government of Japan, Government of MANUFACTURERS' COUNTRY.
On this official document called �gExport Certificate�h, it only shows the
YEAR OF FIRST REGISTRATION of the vehicles. There�fs no information about
MANUFACTURED YEAR. This is how they control the product in Japan.
Information of manufactured year of the vehicles are not obtainable.
Both for domestic and oversea market, the used / new vehicles suppliers
do the paper work by using the data on this document because there are
no other official documents to identify the vehicles.
But to the Customs in Tanzania, it looks like this document is not
acceptable.
The differences on the definition of the AGE OF THE VEHICLES between
Tanzania and Japan is creating serious problems.
4) Autorec's efforts to solve this problem
One day, I have seen Commissioner for Customs and Excise face to face in
his office and discussed about this problem.
Unfortunately, there was no good solution on that day. Commissioner told
me that this is just a minor problem as these are only a few cases among
lots of cars. Instead, he promised me that he�fs going to solve these one
by one by communicating with the manufacturers in Japan to know the
actual manufactured year once the same case comes out.
Believing his word, when we had another problem with NISSAN MARCH,
chassis number k11-683281, I asked for his assistance. I was thinking
that he has a special relationship with the manufactures in Japan and he
can get such information that we can not get from them. However, instead
of contacting NISSAN MOTORS in Japan, he contacted D.T.Dobbie (NISSAN�fs
distributor in Tanzania). Once D.T.Dobie told him that they don�ft deal
in used cars, it was the end of his investigation.
We, Autorec, has contacted NISSAN MOTORS by ourselves, explained the
situation, and finally got a letter from NISSAN to identify the
manufactured year of this unit as an exceptional case (they normally
don't publish such information).
We brought this letter to the Commissioner and we believed that this
will be solved. But I was surprised to know the Commissioner's next
action. Once again, he sent this letter from NISSAN to D.T.Dobbie, and
once again, D.T.Dobbie told him that they don't deal with used cars, and
once again, it was the end of his investigation!
Why should he communicate with D.T.Dobbie while we brought him the
letter from original manufacturer? This is very much not understandable.
The case remained unsolved.
On another day, I received a letter from the Commissioner as a reply to
my letters. In that message, he was saying that now he understood that
the year on the seatbelt label is not the year of manufactured year of
the vehicle.
But still then, the people of the Customs are still judging the age of
the vehicle by checking the seatbelts and other small parts.
We have been fighting against this misunderstanding. We have been
sending letters to Commisioner of Customs and Excise again and again. We
send CC to TBS, TRA, Ministry of Finance, JAAI, Embassy of Tanzania in
Japan and Embassy of Japan in Tanzania. We have been appealing that the
importers in Tanzania should not be charged unfair duties from such a
misunderstanding.
Unfortunately, the Commissioner of Customs is not even replying to our
letters these days. Then we have also sent simillar letter to Parmanent
Secretary of Ministry of Finance. We also got diplomatic support from
Embassy of Japan in Tanzania, Japanese Ambassador has sent an official
letter to Ministry of Finance.
We are hearing that in August 2007, by sending letter to the
Commissioner for Customs and Excise, Ministry of Finance has advised
them to reconsider the definition of the age of the vehicle. But we
haven't seen any changes even after that.
We have been explaing all about this to the people mentioned above and
asking them to reconsider the definition of the age of the vehicle.
In January 2008, I have spoken to the people of Embassy of Japan once
again and asked for some diplomatic assistance because I was feeling
that the authority in this country is not interested to listen to the
voice of one small vehicle supplier.
This time, the First Secretary of Embassy of Japan has met Commissioner
for Customs and Excise by himself and discussed on the same issue.
According to the story I heard from the Secretary, the Commissioner has
understood the situation and promissed that he will work on this to
solve the problem.
Embassy of Japan has wrote an official letter once again to appeal that
the vehicles' age should be defined based on the official documents
because there's nothing else apart from that.
5) Problem for Autorec, the supplier
The issue itself is something between the importers and the Customs in
Tanzania. Therefore, the authority treat us as if we are just outsiders.
It seems as if they are saying that it is not something that a supplier
like Autorec should interrupt. But the situation doesn�ft allow us to sit
behind.
We explain the nature of these problems to the importers (our customers)
who actually suffered this problem and advice them to insist against the
Customs that they have the proper vehicle and official documents. But
instead of fighting against misunderstandings of Customs authority, some
of them actually turn around and start attacking Autorec, saying that
Autorec has sent fake documents / cars and cheated them! Some of them
even threaten us that they are going to take it a court case or attack
us through media.
This is totally not acceptable because Autorec has done nothing wrong in
the procedures.
Something more unpleasant for us is the fact that some of the Customs
officers, when they found the seatbelt label which has different
information with the official document, tell the importers that the
supplier (Autorec) has tricked them with forged documents!!! We totally
don't understand why people on a responsible position can say such a
irresponsible word without doing researches!!!! This is like exeucting
someone for guilty without properly checking!!! This is a clear
offensive disturbance to our business.
Or they are making us a scapegoat so that the importers will not
complain against them.
And as you can see, this is not a problem only for Autorec, but for the
used vehicle trade business as a whole.
Indeed, this is actually creating a very negative image not only to our
business but for the customers in Tanzania who intend to import used
vehicles from Japan. While we are shipping the right vehicles in right
procedure with proper documents (authorized by the Government of
manufacturer�fs country), some importers misjudge that we are cheating
them. This would be a serious damage to us if they continue doing this.
I understand the anger and disappointment of the importers who are
charged of the penalty of 20% against a vehicle they bought as less
10-year-old cars. But even if they attack us, there�fs no solution
because there was nothing wrong on our side.
Therefore, we need a fundamental solution.
6) Similar problem and its solution in Kenya
In Kenya, several years ago, they had the same problem as they also have
year regulation against used vehicle import.
Actually, the problem was more serious in Kenya, because once the
vehicle would be recognised as over 8-year-old, they are simply not
allowed to import that car. Therefore, the importers in Kenya had fought
against the authority by themselves. Of course, we, the suppliers, also
assisted them.
As a result, Kenya�fs Ministries, KRA(Kenya Revenue Authority) and
KBS(Kenya Bereau of Standard) have worked together to solve this
problem, and finally decided to judge the year of the cars based on the
information on the documents. Since then, there has been no such trouble
on the same issue in Kenya.
This story gives an idea that there's no solution so long as they
continue checking the seatbelts and other parts.
....Thank you very much indeed for reading such a long story. But I'm
sure this is a serious problem that any of you may also suffer.
We have been fighting against this, but as this is an internal problem
in this country, something that a foreigner can do is limited. As an
outsider, we cannot intervene the country's policy.
Not having good fruit after such a lot of effort, we are feeling as if
we are stucked.
Therefore, now we'll appreciate if you'll give us your ideas and view to
solve this problem.
Once again, thank you very much indeed for your understanding and
assistance to us.
--
Best regards,
Masao Kuwabara
Autorec Tanzania Limited
E-mail : masao@autorectz.com
Address : Room 425, 4th floor, Harbour View Towers, Samora Ave.,
P.O.Box 5023, Dar es salaam, Tanzania
Phone : +255-22-2124101
Fax : +255-22-2124103
Cell : +255-753-193583
