“We launch Nissan X-Trail e-Power at 30 million pesos in July of last year. Today it is worth 110 million. I’m not going to talk about profitability, which is very bad, we don’t make any money, but beyond that, 110 million pesos converted into dollars is a lot of money for that vehicle. But how much of that price is tax?” The question was asked Ricardo Flammini, President of Nissan Argentinaon April 9 of this year in front of a group of journalists during the launch of the brand’s fiscal year, in a round table where the exclusive topic was the situation of the current automotive industry in Argentina and its high tax burden.
Not a month passed after that event, and with the May price lists, Flammini confirmed his theory. As the tax base of the scales that govern the internal tax known as the luxury car tax has been updated, the same Nissan X-Trail that in April cost $110,850,500, now has a publication price of $78,500,000, that is, 29% cheaper.
“The new bands announced in relation to internal taxes, effective from May 1, allowed us to lower the suggested prices of the Nissan Sentra, the Nissan X-Trail e-POWER and the Nissan Leaf“, the executive responded this Friday to Infobae in the face of the unprecedented situation.
What happened was that scale 2 of the internal tax, which began to run from a price of $63,000,000, is now valid when a car exceeds $83,000,000 million, therefore, that model has now been downgraded for the tax. The difference between both scales is very noticeable. While vehicles that exceed $37,000,000 pays 20% nominal that becomes an effective 25% of the price, those who pass the $83,000,000 pays a nominal 35% which translates into a real 53% in the sales value.
“When we say we need the government to review the productive and commercial tax burdens that the industry has today is because the distortions were magnified with an updated dollaraffecting the country’s consumers and leaving our exports uncompetitive,” with this phrase, a senior executive in the automotive industry when the first downward price corrections began to be seen. some imported models due to the effect of the new internal tax scale.
Indeed, the Nissan X-Trail is not the only case in which a car dropped in category and therefore in price considerably with the beginning of the month of May. In the same brand, the Nissan Leafa 100% electric model that is imported from England, had a price of $115,348,500 in April and with the new luxury tax scale, It passed in May at a price of $69,136,500that is, a drop of 40%.
This distortion can also be seen among local manufacturers. General Motors I had the version Tracker 1.2 Premier of its successful SUV in April at a price of $44,210,900, meaning that it went beyond the first scale and therefore was 25% more expensive. The relationship could be seen with the immediately previous version, the LTZ Tracker which had a “capped” price of $27,489,900. No matter how luxurious the Premier version is over the LTZ, it is not logical that it costs 16 million pesos more expensive.
The check can be done now, in May, because in the new price list released by the brand, where the Tracker Premier fell $8,000,000 to reach a price of $36,600,900, while the LTZ model rose in price to $29,990,900. The difference between the two is now reasonable, six million pesos.
In Volkswagen There are also cases of prices that fell thanks to the new internal tax scale. The first is from VW Polo GTS, the sports version of the brand’s entry-level car, which in April had a price of $36,858,500 and in May it dropped to $32,355,650. In this case, the car went beyond scale 1 and paid the 20% tax, but With the new recategorization, it is now exempt from the tax and costs 12% less. And that same situation occurs with the Virtus Exclusivewith the Nivus Highlinewith the T-Cross Highlineand with the most accessible version Comfortline 250 TSI of the national SUV Taoswhich in April had a price of $41,462,000 and in May it dropped to $36,504,000, that is, also a 12% less.
During the next week, with the new price lists of the rest of the brands, it is possible that something similar will happen with some models of Honda, Jeepimported models Peugeot and Renault. It could also be seen in other imported SUVs such as the Chinese ones, which paid the tax due to their price.
What is clear is that the internal tax is showing for the first time that it may need a new design. Eliminate scale 1 or lower it to zero tariff as proposed at the end of the year, and leave scale 2 above $80,000 For imported cars, it seems to have found a balance that allows some models to be purchased at reasonable prices.
