Stats proof

USED CAR DEALERS say they’ve finally been vindicated by the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS).
Through newly obtained figures from Government’s Statistical Department, the Consortium of Used Vehicle Importers showed yesterday that they did not import $68 million in used vehicles as was stated by the Customs Department last month, but that the $68 million was the value of all cars – old and new – imported into Barbados in 2012.
The BSS actually showed that $75 729 415 was spent by car importers for 3 323 vehicles last year, of which about $68 million was the basic costs while the remainder covered insurance and freighting.
President of the consortium Judy Forde was ecstatic yesterday, saying the figures from the BSS were markedly at odds with those declared by now-retired Comptroller of Customs Frank Holder who accused the consortium of rampant under-invoicing late last month.
Holder said then that Customs’ records showed the total used vehicles leaving Japan for Barbados in 2012 were valued at $68 million, but only $37 million worth of imports were declared here. This, he said, was causing the Treasury to lose some $60 million annually.