THE automobile industry has been enjoying a good time for at least four years due to the increase in disposable income of a quarter and easy financing from banks and non-bank financial institutions. Due to the imbalanced economic structure, a small section of people has become rich while poor become poorer. As income gap widened, the illegal money directly hit the car market of Tk 5,000 crore. With the increasing of purchasing capacity, many opted for comport communications. Their logic is; public transportation is not up to the mark.
But the city’s roads are not well prepared to receive a large number of personal vehicles due to grabbing of roads by hawkers, illegal parking and unplanned digging by different utility services resulting in severe congestion on roads and pollution in environment.
Last fiscal year, the government earned Tk 3,700 crore from the sector and it will soar in the coming days if policy support is extended. The government’s decision to allow the import of hybrid car is helping the market to grow. Now, at least 20 per cent of the cars brought into Bangladesh are hybrid ones, which are getting popular due to fuel economy and being environmentally friendly but one of the drawback with owning hybrid cars at present is that their replacement batteries are not widely available yet.
For decades, country’s automobile market has been occupied by Japanese manufacturers, particularly Toyota, which is the undisputed leader in both the reconditioned and brand new cars. It has 90 per cent market share in Bangladesh. However, other Japanese manufacturers, such as Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi can sell a few of their products here.
We think, the government should set some policies regarding the car market as the high import of reconditioned cars will ultimately make the country a wasting ground while Dhaka is infamous for traffic congestion too. The authorities should lay emphasis on the public transport system to discourage personal vehicles.
But the city’s roads are not well prepared to receive a large number of personal vehicles due to grabbing of roads by hawkers, illegal parking and unplanned digging by different utility services resulting in severe congestion on roads and pollution in environment.
Last fiscal year, the government earned Tk 3,700 crore from the sector and it will soar in the coming days if policy support is extended. The government’s decision to allow the import of hybrid car is helping the market to grow. Now, at least 20 per cent of the cars brought into Bangladesh are hybrid ones, which are getting popular due to fuel economy and being environmentally friendly but one of the drawback with owning hybrid cars at present is that their replacement batteries are not widely available yet.
For decades, country’s automobile market has been occupied by Japanese manufacturers, particularly Toyota, which is the undisputed leader in both the reconditioned and brand new cars. It has 90 per cent market share in Bangladesh. However, other Japanese manufacturers, such as Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi can sell a few of their products here.
We think, the government should set some policies regarding the car market as the high import of reconditioned cars will ultimately make the country a wasting ground while Dhaka is infamous for traffic congestion too. The authorities should lay emphasis on the public transport system to discourage personal vehicles.
