Now, all that is left for the deal to be consummated is for the Ministry of Finance to agree to waive 35 per cent of the duty that would normally be attached to the importation of these vehicles, collectively valued at $6 million.
Whatever happens at this stage, said Sunil Chatrani of Warrens Motors, local agents for BMW, no more than 40 to 50 of the new luxury cars will be available to the Local Organising Committee (LOC). This means that officials will have to rely on borrowed or rented BMWs, a process that had already been started in case the deal fell through, in order to save the country major embarrassment.
Chatrani explained that in response to a request from Warrens Motors on Tuesday, BMW on Wednesday was informed that the automaker was willing to provide "a small discount" to make the deal more manageable for the local company.
Warrens Motors is now to write the ministry formally requesting the 35 per cent waiver on duties, which according to Chatrani, there had been some prior indication they would be willing to do.
"If we can get that commitment in writing, we would be able to go forward, with some refinement of our expenses numbers to make sure we do not take a loss on this deal," he added.
Though he did not speak to it, industry sources said the Warrens Motors board of directors had already given the green light for many of the 65-odd vehicles already imported to be shipped out to Trinidad and Guyana where there was already some interest in buying them, with any others going back to BMW International.
Chatrani explained that the concessions were critical since all the potential buyers were expecting a discount of no less than 25 per cent on the vehicles after they were used for CWC.
Additionally, the company would have to recover all the costs associated with shipping, handling, storage, road-worthiness preparation for the cars and insurance, plus repairing any dents, scratches or other damage sustained during the tournament. It also has to bear the cost of training drivers to ensure that they don't cause damage to the highly sensitive components of the specially outfitted vehicles.
Other BMW dealers got over this potential hurdle though as a result of concessions – 100 per cent waiver in Antigua and 75 per cent in St Lucia. There is no BMW dealer in Guyana and that country's government bought the vehicles outright.
It now appears that Government will buy just short of ten of the cars for senior public servants who qualify for them as a condition of service and put them in the World Cup pool during the tournament.
In a show of good faith, Warrens Motors is also "lending" the LOC a number of BMWs from the fleet used by its managers, and assisting in identifying other owners who might be interested in special transportation arrangements during the tournament.