Kia SA MD Gary Scott claimed yesterday an estimated 440 000 illegally imported, used cars are travelling regularly on SA roads, costing the exchequer up to R8bn in lost taxes and posing a major risk to road safety.

According to a Business Day report, Scott blamed slack regulations for the fact that about 55 000 ‘grey’ imports slip into SA each year.

That’s more than the number of new vehicles sold every month.

There is not an exact figure for the used-car market because so much of it is informal. However, based on credit requests and other research, banks estimate that there are 2.4 used sales for every new sale.

Last year 304 340 new cars were sold in SA.

‘If we could stop this trade, it would be like a 13th cheque for the industry,’ he said.

Most buyers, stripped of their grey imports, would move initially into the legitimate used-car market, bringing revenue and taxes into the local system.

 Scott said grey imports were partly responsible for a 23% drop in new-vehicle sales in Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini in the past five years. They have been a problem in SA for many years but their numbers are now growing rapidly.

The biggest problem is Durban harbour, where lax oversight allows vehicles supposedly destined for other countries on the continent to slip into SA.

Government attempts to solve the problem had proved inadequate.

He equated efforts to reduce the numbers to ‘trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon’.

Full Business Day report