Government to hike car duty by 5%

Government is mulling a five percent duty hike on imported cars, as Finance and Economic Development minister, Patrick Chinamasa moves to protect local assemblers, according to sources.

The country has three motor assembling plants, namely Quest Motors, Willowvale and AVM Africa, whose operations have been affected by an increase in cheap imports mainly from Japan.

The sources say the duty hike was expected to be announced in the 2016 National Budget due on November 26 and would bring to 15% the cumulative duty increase for car imports this year.