Geely to impose price hike on vehicles following safeguard tax imposition

After enjoying notable accomplishments last year, the local distributor of Chinese automotive brand Geely announced that they will implement a price increase across all models.

Sojitz G Auto Philippines (SGAP) made the announcement that an adjustment in cost of the Coolray, Azkarra, and Okavango will be made following the Customs Memorandum Order (CMO), announcing that they will apply the directive from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to add safeguard tariff on the majority of imported vehicles.

However, SGAP President and CEO Mikihisa Takayama said that the vehicle price hike will not be applied immediately.

“The new safeguard tariff will eventually raise prices of Geely vehicles for new shipments which will arrive this month.  The good news, however, is that our customers can still enjoy the current prices since we, the distributor and our dealers still have enough inventory,” he said.

Recently, the DTI has decided to raise tax on most of the imported vehicles, which according to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, “will provide a breathing space to the domestic industry.”

Under Republic Act 8800, also known as the Safeguard Measures Act, the DTI shall impose “a provisional safeguard measure in the form of a cash bond amounting to P70,000/unit for passenger cars/vehicles under AHTN Code 8703 and P110,000/unit for light commercial vehicles under AHTN Codes 8704.21.19 and 8704.21.29.”

The provisional safeguard measure, the agency noted, will be conducted “while the case is under formal investigation by the Tariff Commission for a period of 200 days” from the day of the issuance of the BoC’s CMO.

The additional safeguard duties on most of the imported vehicles was made following the petition of the Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA) that sought to save local vehicle assembly operations.

“It is unfortunate that such policy was decided to be implemented at a time when the auto industry is expected to recover from the huge drop in sales volume last year due to the pandemic.  In spite of this, SGAP is still optimistic that the auto sales for this year will make a rebound. We also hope that the market can adjust to the new higher prices this policy will bring,” Takayama claimed.

SGAP has yet to announce the price adjustments on its vehicles.

Photos from Sojitz G Auto Philippines

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