by MELISSA WICKHAM

THERE IS good news for used car dealers but bad news for consumers.

While over 300 used cars are slowly trickling out of the Bridgetown Port on a daily basis, the public will have to pay more for the vehicles so dealers can recover their losses.

Spokesperson for the dealers, Noel Euzebe, said the cost of the cars, which were detained by the Customs and Excise Department since December last year for alleged under-invoicing, could go up by as much as 15 per cent to 20 per cent when they hit the market.

Customs started releasing the cars from last week.

"I've spoken to a number of individual importers and dealers and they are getting their cars. Every day, a reasonable number of cars are being released.

"Based on the information I'm getting from them, the cars are going to cost more money, so the public should anticipate the price of the cars will be higher," he told the DAILY NATION during a telephone interview.

Euzebe disclosed that he met with customs officials, including Acting Comptroller of Customs Joseph Best, this week and both parties reached an "amicable arrangement" but he declined to go into detail.

However, he did say that the bond customs was previously asking the dealers to pay was no longer an issue.

Based on the discussions, he said he was satisfied that a good-faith attempt was being made by customs to get the vehicles out of the port, adding he did not anticipate any legal action against the department as threatened.

"The dealers have still lost a considerable amount of money and time over this matter but we are anxious to get on with the business of selling motor vehicles. We have taken the position that we want to co-operate with the department.

"We will encourage the importers of vehicles to familiarise themselves with the procedures and the requirements of customs and make sure they are fully compliant when they go to the department to facilitate the quick release of the cars," he said.

But while the troubles with one Government agency have seemingly been resolved, they seem to be brewing with another. Euzebe explained that although the cars were being released, that did not mean dealers could drive them out right away because of storage fees imposed by the Bridgetown Port. Customs had arranged for the fees to be waived but there was a technicality.

"If your cars came in in May and you only handed over the documents for them in June, the waiver you are getting from customs only covers from June onwards. You are required to pay for the period outside the lodging of the documents.

"Some dealers took a wait-and-see attitude because they were very uncertain and didn't hand over the documents right away," he said.

He added: "I think it is unreasonable for people to pay storage, given what has happened this year. We are being penalised for the actions of the Customs Department, that is our only difficulty at this time. The Port Authority understands the situation with customs but they still expect us to pay storage fees."

He said most used car dealers were operating without an income for the past six to seven months and therefore did not know where they would get the money to pay the storage.

* melissawickham@nationnews.com