‘Car dealers’ strike harming other industries’

AMMAN — The week-long strike by car traders in the Jordan Free Zone (JFZ) is harming business for transport facilitators, an association for forwarders said on Thursday.  

Car traders have stopped selling cars at the JFZ in protest over recent tax hikes by the government.

Abdul Monem Azaizeh, head of the Forwarders Association Owners Syndicate, said the strike was affecting the work of more than 300 companies that organise the delivery of shipments.  

 “We are not part of the argument or the differences between the traders and the government, but our business has been greatly affected. Since traders decided to strike and stop selling cars, we have not been working for days…A small number of traders have sold some cars, but the majority has joined the protest,” Azaizeh told The Jordan Times.

“When the work of 300 offices is affected then hundreds of families suffer as our business is slowing down greatly amidst this protest,” he added.

Sources at the Jordan Free Zone Investor Commission were not available for comment. 

Traders at the JFZ recently threatened to set cars on fire at their dealerships in protest over tax hikes. 

Traders have refused to sell any vehicles after the government reduced tax exemptions on imported used cars and increased the ownership transfer fees of private vehicles in June.

Traders at the zone said economic conditions in Jordan were “very tough” and the new measures would make the situation worse, in a statement published on their Facebook page.

The decision to lower the rate of tax exemptions on used cars was part of a set of fiscal measures the government took to raise public revenues.

The decision increased car prices by 8 to 17 per cent, depending on the model and engine size.