Pres­i­dent of the pre-owned Au­to­mo­bile Deal­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion, In­shan Ish­mael, says the 50 per cent in­crease in mo­tor ve­hi­cle trans­fer tax, an­nounced dur­ing the 2009/2010 bud­get, will not af­fect mo­torists in any way.

"I don't see it as ei­ther here or there, as a mo­tor ve­hi­cle is a very ex­pen­sive item." Ish­mael com­mend­ed Gov­ern­ment for in­creas­ing the penal­ties for traf­fic law vi­o­la­tions, and not­ed that for five years he had been call­ing on Gov­ern­ment to im­ple­ment such mea­sures. "I just hope the mea­sures are ac­tu­al­ly en­forced," Ish­mael said.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Nunez-Tesheira, in her bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion yes­ter­day, an­nounced that peo­ple who used ve­hi­cles with­out park lights, over­took im­prop­er­ly on the left side of the road, over­took traf­fic at a dan­ger­ous place, ex­ceed­ed the spec­i­fied speed lim­it would be made to pay an in­creased penal­ty–from $200 to $1,000.

She al­so said use of the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route by unau­tho­rised ve­hi­cles would in­cur an in­creased penal­ty–from $200 to $2,000; while the penal­ty for il­le­gal tints would be $2,000. Own­ers of ve­hi­cles not out­fit­ted with seat­belts, she said, would face a $2,000 fine. (LS)