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Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

economist.com

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Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#71

Post by mrtksn »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #65
mrtksn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting but Turkey has found a solution to the problem. Having one of the highest tax rates in the World[0], the country had to be creative, thus invented the "Special Consumption tax" or SCT , which is determined by the size of the engine and price bracket of the car. When you buy a car in Turkey, on top of the import duties(if any) a SCT is added(anywhere from %45 to %150), on top of that a VAT is added(…

If the taxes are THAT high - wouldn't it make sense to just buy cars in Greece and ship/drive them to Turkey? When the 2 year period is up - what happens? Can you sell the car?

Just to be able to bring the car with you from abroad(but not import the car), you need to spend at least 185 days abroad. Once you are in Turkey, only you are allowed to use the car(you may let someone else drive but you must be present in the car).

So you can't just go to Greece, buy a cheap car and bring it to Turkey. The laws are designed to allow the Turkish diaspora or foreign visitors to come for work and a holiday in Turkey but to block any attempts of the citizens buying cheap cars from a neighbouring country and use them in Turkey.

When the 2 year period is up, you obviously start building up fines.

Turkey sucks at collecting taxes, there are a few areas where the country is effective at collection of taxes and automobiles is one of them and they are damn serious about it.

Another original Turkish tax collection method is on cellphones. Like the cars, taxes are very high on cellphones and to block bringing phones from abroad all the foreign devices need to be registered within 90 days of the first time the device picks up signal in Turkey(once the 90 days expire, the phone can no longer connect to the GSM network until registered). The registration price is hefty, making it not worth it. You are also allowed to register 1 device every few years and you need to register within the first 90 days of your arrival from abroad.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#72

Post by qiskit »

sandworm101 wrote: post #6

The irony is that Bolivia is a hotspot for lithium production. I love the diconnect. A country to poor to effectively control the import of illegal used cars, where cops can be bought off for 100$, is producting lithium for electric vehicles sold in the richest.

> The irony is that Bolivia is a hotspot for lithium production.

It's why there was a coup in bolivia a few years ago. Guess who was involved in that one? Hint, the same one involved in coups in ukraine, venezuela, iran, etc. Discovering major resources is both a blessing and a curse. It can generate wealth/development. It also brings in bullies who want to steal your wealth/resource. Hopefully bolivia can buck the trend and use their resource for the good of their nation.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#74

Post by scythe »

smnrchrds wrote: post #11
scythe wrote: post #9

This is a good example where import controls are obviously silly. Is Bolivia (pop 11M) going to have a domestic car industry? Does it make any sense to ship the raw materials for building a car 4000 meters up in the Andes instead of just shipping the car?

Probably not, but not because of the population. Sweden's population is smaller (10.3 million) and yet it is home to Volvo and Scania.

Bolivia's population has increased sharply recently, while Sweden's has been growing much slower if at all. So historically Sweden doesn't look so small, and they share (somewhat) a labor and goods market with Germany, which has a huge domestic car industry and correspondingly offers the goods and services that car manufacturers need, and Denmark nearby, with shipping on the Baltic offering multiple excellent ports. Historically, in 1950 you have Sweden at 7M and Bolivia at 2.7M. Sweden is an outlier among small countries with its car industry thanks to all of these factors.

Additionally, while not all of Bolivia is mountainous, the sweltering tropical climate of the lowlands is not exactly germane to physical toiling in a factory building all day. And my point about labor resources includes diversion from other more worthy applications of the abilities of Bolivia's engineers: its domestic infrastructure (power/transport/water) is lacking and you can't import that. Sweden has had a long time to build a power grid and rail system and enjoys less challenging geography.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#75

Post by ab_testing »

mellavora wrote: post #57
mrtksn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting but Turkey has found a solution to the problem. Having one of the highest tax rates in the World[0], the country had to be creative, thus invented the "Special Consumption tax" or SCT , which is determined by the size of the engine and price bracket of the car. When you buy a car in Turkey, on top of the import duties(if any) a SCT is added(anywhere from %45 to %150), on top of that a VAT is added(…

Hey, that's even better than turning houses into investments, creating a house price bubble!!

Don't worry, houses are still an investment in Turkey - just as everywhere else in world.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#76

Post by eatplayrove »

Jenk wrote: post #55
tragomaskhalos wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turkey has always had creative taxation schemes - as a British holidaymaker visiting in the 90s, everyone had to pop a fiver (sterling) into a hat at passport control.

It was a tenner in 2011.

Wait until you hear Turks have to pay 120 euros for a tourist visa to Europe...

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#78

Post by scythe »

sandworm101 wrote: post #6

The irony is that Bolivia is a hotspot for lithium production. I love the diconnect. A country to poor to effectively control the import of illegal used cars, where cops can be bought off for 100$, is producting lithium for electric vehicles sold in the richest.

Bolivia is not a hotspot for lithium production. In fact, lithium doesn't rank among Bolivian exports at all.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bolivia_Product_Ex...

Bolivia has extensive lithium resources which are known to be economically viable, but development of those resources is still largely hypothetical, though a few small production facilities have opened in the last decade.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#79

Post by kragen »

sokoloff wrote: post #61
kragen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks to ehnto providing the keyword, I found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor-vehicle_inspection_(Japa... . It says: ... the system effectively represents an additional tax on used car ownership. Even owners of a perfectly maintained vehicle can expect to pay 100,000 yen (US $899) for a two-year inspection, and requirements are even stricter for vehicles over 10 years old leading to an extremely high effective t…

> I don't think paying US$70 per year is "just like" paying US$600 per year. See the point #3 that you posted in your comment. Repairs/maintenance required to pass MOT (or equivalent inspection here) are in addition to the inspection fee.

Sure, agreed.

Re: Bolivia is awash with contraband cars from Japan

#80

Post by fomine3 »

ruined wrote: post #25
bombcar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving a steering wheel seems like it would be more trouble than it’s worth, but I’ve not actually taken apart a Japanese car to see if the holes and mounting spots are all there.

pretty much every modern car was designed with both versions in mind. many cheaper cars have agnostic dashboards that don't take much to convert. and any globally distributed model is going to at least have a secondhand market where the parts for conversion are readily available. for some popular models where OEM dashes are hard to come by, there are full dashboard kits produced by third parties.

There are still some JDM models like minivan, K-car so I expect some cars are hard to modify.
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