Car prices may rise after SST, warns Nissan

(FMT) – The abolition of the 6% goods and services tax (GST) and introduction of the sales and services tax (SST) may not bring about the reduction in car prices that many are hoping for.

Edaran Tan Chong Motor’s sales and marketing director Christopher Tan told the media that prices of Nissan vehicles may actually go up slightly, the popular auto website paultan.org reported.

“For almost every brand, when we migrated from sales tax to GST, the prices actually came down a little bit,” Tan said during the launch of the new Nissan Serena S-Hybrid.

“If the sales tax implemented is exactly the same as before, there could actually be a price increase. 

“What I can say for now is that perhaps now is the best time to buy, because if that happens, you could be paying a slightly higher price in the future.”

Tan said the sales tax was previously 10%.

He added that Nissan had introduced a price protection scheme to encourage members of the public to continue buying cars instead of waiting for the GST to be abolished.

Under this scheme, customers who purchase their cars starting this month will get the difference refunded to them if prices go down after the SST is implemented.

The website said what form this refund would take had not been decided.

A similar scheme has also been introduced for Subaru vehicles, with prices maintained at current levels for vehicles purchased from now until Aug 18.

The website said if prices are reduced when SST is implemented, the difference would be refunded in the form of a service voucher or the price adjusted.