Irish motor distributors are destroying millions of euro worth of seats and windows because of what they claim are rules regarding Vehicle Registration Tax on commercial and passenger vehicles, writes Michael McAleer
However, the Revenue Commissioners deny that such rules exist and claim they have no interest in seeing the parts destroyed.
Most of the smaller commercial vehicles on sale in Ireland arrive in the State as passenger cars or 4x4s and then have their seats removed and rear windows replaced before registration in order to qualify for the special VRT rate for commercial vehicles.
Under the current system, commercial vehicles pay either a nominal fee of €50 VRT, or a discounted rate of 13.3 per cent. Regular passenger vehicles are charged 22.5 per cent, 25 per cent or 31 per cent of their open market selling price, depending on the size of the engine.
We spoke with several leading Irish importers who told us they destroy over €1 million worth of back seats and rear windows in order to comply with a legal requirements that seats cannot be reused or resold.
According to one, the rear seats are removed by licenced contractors. During the process the supports for seats are destroyed so that seats cannot be fitted in the vehicle after they have been registered as commercial.
However, according to a spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners' policy and legislation division, such a rule existed in the pre-1993 regulations.
Today, while the inspectors check to ensure that the seats are not just removed temporarily, they have no interest in seeing the seats broken up or the windows smashed.
He said that since VRT came into effect, the inspectors' only interest is that the vehicle does not have the rear windows or the back seats. They do not have any interest in what happens to these parts.
Toyota Ireland, for example, converts over 1,800 vehicles every year and the estimated value of the parts removed and destroyed is €2 million. According to the company, the parts are taken away by Ipodec, a refuse collection firm.
When the vehicles are initially imported into the country, they are held in one of a number of licensed areas, similar to bonded warehouses.
As orders come in, the distributors process the vehicles in these areas, and contractors convert the vehicles for commercial use as required. They are then put forward for inspection by the Revenue Commissioners.
However, while spot checks are carried out, not every vehicle is inspected.
In the Dublin area, for example, with 14 licensed converters, there are eight control officers who inspect that the converted vehicles meet the criteria and match the numbers registered.
Some firms are moving towards importing specific commercial vehicles in the future, rather than having to convert the vehicles here.