By IANS
Dhaka : The anti-corruption drive in Bangladesh is scaring the living daylights out of the rich, causing an 80 percent fall in the sale of luxury cars.
Not a single new BMW car was sold last year, officials at the sole distributor of the prestigious German brand said.
The distributor sold 300 BMWs between 2003 and December 2006. But with buyers frightened to show their wealth or be asked about income sources, the pool of potential customers has been reduced to zero, The Daily Star said Tuesday.
Various BMW models cost between Taka 5.5 million ($90,000) and Taka 350 million ($5.8 million).
The firm did not even open any letter of credit after January 2007 to import BMW cars since it did not receive any order from customers.
It is trying to shift the three BMWs it has, with just one on display gathering dust at its showroom.
Mohammed Ariful Azim, the firm’s general manager (operation), said: “The customers of cars like BMW are not willing to buy fearing that they will face questions from the law enforcers.”
Soon after assuming power in January last year, the army-backed caretaker government launched drives against corruption, detaining former ministers, lawmakers, officials and businessmen.
As many as 60 luxury vehicles, including Pajeros, Harriers, Porsches, BMWs, Toyota Prados, Lincoln, Lexus, Toyota Land Cruisers and Cadillacs were seized.
Some of them were found abandoned by the roadside in different places across the country. Azim said customers usually don’t buy luxurious cars for day-to-day use.
“Our prospective customers were those who had cars, but were willing to buy luxurious ones to keep status in the society,” he said, adding “we missed that kind of people over the year 2007”.
Dhaka prides in being called “Toyota city” for the popularity of the Japanese car here. When importing the cars became expensive after Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, renovated Toyotas were permitted to keep the vocal middle class consumer happy.
Being cost-effective, the Indian Maruti Suzuki has now found a limited market in Bangladesh.
M. Salahuddin, president of Bangladesh Automobile Dealers Association (BADA), told The Daily Star that the year 2007 was historically “dull” in terms of sales of luxurious cars.
According to him, a total of 2,500 new cars are usually sold per year in Bangladesh but in 2007 sales of new cars fell by 80 percent.