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Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

No import tax, no annual ‘Marchamo’ – Bill offers big incentives for electric, hybrid vehicles

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October 20th, 2015 (ICR News) Reps. Franklin Corella and Marcela Guerrero of the ruling Citizen Action Party (PAC) have presented a bill that would offer significant economic incentives for those who purchase hybrid or fully electric vehicles.

 

The bill is aimed to address Costa Rica’s growing problem with air pollution, 41 percent of which is attributed to private gasoline and diesel powered passenger vehicles.  The number of private passenger vehicles on Costa Rica’s roadways has more than doubled in the last 20 years.

 

The incentives for the purchase of hybrid and electric vehicles included in the bill are significant, and would likely lead many car buyers to consider such vehicles should the bill be approved.

 

Amongst the incentives is a complete exemption from import duty and related taxes, and an exemption from the standard 13 percent sales tax.

 

Those purchasing electric and hybrid vehicles would also be exempt from paying the annual road tax known as ‘marchamo’ for a period of five years, and would not have to pay parking meters.

 

Drivers of these vehicles would also be exempt from San Jose’s vehicular restrictions, or “tag days” in which vehicles whose license plates end in a certain number are restricted from driving in the core city during certain days of the week.

 

Rep. Guerrero used the example of a hybrid or electric vehicle whose value at present is $30,000.  Under the proposed legislation, the value of all exemptions that would apply to that vehicle would total $17,000.

 

The level of air pollution throughout the greater San Jose metro area exceeds recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is blamed for at least 350 premature deaths per year.

 

The economic cost to the country in terms of health problems related to air pollution in 2011 was estimated at more than US $390 million annually, or 1.1 percent of 2011 GDP.

 

The bill is receiving strong support and could be adopted as early as the first quarter of next year.

 

If approved, the legislation would expire after five years or after 100,000 such vehicles are imported and exempted, whichever comes first.

 

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  • Yeims

    ICE would certainly be ecstatic if this were to happen . . .

  • zzzzz

    I guess the government would get their money back through the sale of electricity used to recharge the vehicles,,,

    • richard schlinder

      Remember,you are now not buying gas.

      • zzzzz

        haha, well that depends, since apart from last year, 20% of the electricity here was produced using fossil fuels.
        Apart from that i don’t know what the actual electrical consumption is for recharging and maintaining the batteries is.
        hmmm.
        Electricity is costlier than up north, so i’m actually curious…. ok i just checked rapidly, looks like it would cost about $10/ 100 miles but then again you’d need to tack on battery replacement and loss of charge which only grows with time…

        • richard schlinder

          I like your thinking.This matter has to be thought through.For example,because of where I live ,I would need a car with 15 inch tires because of bad roads.That would mean a larger car. Now ,if I drive 50 kilometers,it costs me $10. So we still don’t get something for nothing.The gratification would come by knowing I am not polluting the fine air in Costa Rica. Chao.

          • zzzzz

            i feel exactly the same way, i love air, plus if you are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic you are not wasting a dime idling and breathing your own fumes and there is also a way to retrieve energy while braking which for some reason is the thing i find most exciting. cheers

  • richard schlinder

    I spent a day in San Jose trying to find a particular store.The air was still and driving in circles in the mitts of diesel fumes really got to me.This seems like a good way to ,at least ,to start to handle this problem.

    • zzzzz

      I think it is coming, most people are, surprisingly enough, favorable.
      Economy of scale and pretty half naked girls will make it a sure thing…..

  • Ellen van Dyk

    Maybe a campaign to get vehicle owners to realize that the oil and filter that the car came with needs to be replaced. We do ours every 3000km.
    This improves hill climbing, gas mileage, not to mention how kind it is to the engine etc. We drive with the recirculating vent on avoiding the stench blowing into the interior.
    Often wonder how these people pass the annual RITEVE. I see cars that shouldn’t be on the road having passed their RITEVE the previous month. Hmmmmm!

  • Ken Morris

    As described, the bill goes way too far.

    Hybrid and fully electric vehicles would help reduce the worsening air quality in Costa Rica, and for this reason might merit more favorable tax treatment than other vehicles.

    However, unless these vehicles replace existing vehicles, they would do nothing to improve air quality. At best they would reduce the rate at which it is getting worse. Given the upward trend line on motor vehicle ownership, I see no reason to expect that these vehicles will replace existing one.

    Moreover, emissions are hardly the whole of motor vehicles’ harmful environmental and social impacts. Simply building, maintaining, and disposing of motor vehicles is an environmental assault, while batteries and electricity aren’t without their environmental costs. Also, even hybird and fully electric vehicles run over people, gobble up paved urban space for driving and parking, and destroy the kind of pedestrian life that is essential for reducing crime and maintaining civic life.

    Meanwhile, this bill actually asks all taxpayers to subsidize others’ purchase of these cars in the form of paying for their free parking and mandatory marchamo insurance.

    If the lawmakers want to provide some substantial tax breaks to the purchasers of these vehicles, that is probably OK social policy. However, the tax breaks shouldn’t be so extensive that others are required to subsidize the buyers. Most importantly, nobody should delude themselves into imagining that hybrid or fully electric vehicles will improve anything. At best they will only slow the rate at which things get worse.

  • gc

    if you want to improve the air and make the roads safer eliminate importation tax on all vehicles. many moto locos could afford cars, and everyone could afford newer vehicles that emit less pollution. it would cut back on public transportation making transport for work more efficient. the lefty memes of trying to guide a better society are a fail. get the taxes and labor laws out of the way and life would improve immensely. time to stop listening to stinking animal farming lefty theoreticians that could not run a hot dog stand at a profit. let people do what they want at as low a price as possible and we all will be better off. ….or maybe you see public, read government, run everything as spraying perfume all over society instead of deadbeat stench.

    • richard schlinder

      GC.Please understand this.The import tax on any item is needed by this country because the Ticos cannot afford other types of taxes.There are Ticos that never pay their real estate taxes.Retailers don’t deposit the 13% sales tax as they should by law.
      I live with these people and know what they earn a week or a month.It’s nothing! There is no money for the government to get from these people.A great income for a Tico is $800 per month.Most get paid $400 per month and some even less.This government knows these people have no money to start with,how can they tax these people? The import tax is C.R.’s main source of tax revenue. It is what it is.

  • Jeff Fisher

    I have been living the Hybrid dream the past 2 years in Costa Rica as I bought my 2012 Toyota HIghlander Hybrid Ltd from Purdy Motors, and now Lexus also sells them here. I love how quiet and clean it is, but unfortunately i must sell or trade mine and at a price cheaper than bringing the car here, $48,000. The news article above, about the potential reduction of the marchamo is fantastic because my 2015 marchamo says this vehicle is worth $61,400 with last year’s fee of a little more than $2000. I also get to drive it in San Jose with ZERO restrictions for any day.

    I love this Highlander; and it charges itself automatically as it switches from gas to electric to gas; plus its fast, roomy, gets 28 mpg instead of a normal 15 mpg, full super cool extras; leather, sunroof, optional 7 passengers, 4×4 AWD, AND I would take your SUV in trade (up to $20,000 value and the rest cash. I have had it for 2 years, only has 24,000 MILES ON IT, silver exterior, light interior, full full full extras.
    If interested contact me at crbeach dot com.
    (And yes Rico, I love http://www.qcostarica.com).

    thanks
    jeff

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      Jeff, this is not Rico, and not QCostaRica.

      • Jeff Fisher

        Ken, I greatly apologize for calling you Rico,
        and thinking you were part of the Q empire.
        And i would like to discuss advertising with you.
        However, you deleted my entire post which had
        very relevant information to this discussion,
        especially regarding the fact that hybrids do not
        plug in, and switch automatically between the engine running on gas and then to electric.
        Lets talk soon.
        Jeff

        • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

          Hi Jeff, it is Tim, or Timothy, by the way, not Ken. We acquired Inside Costa Rica from Rico back in 2012. At any rate, your post was only deleted because it seemed like a classified ad to sell your hybrid vehicle that was for sale, and we don’t permit (blatant) advertising in our comments section. If you would like to repost in a manner that is less like an advertisement, feel free. We also have a completely free classifieds section on this site where you can place an ad yourself, online, at no charge. For paid advertising inquiries, drop us a line at [email protected] – Thank you!

  • http://www.1dreamgetaway.com aj seaman

    I wish Government would recognize that there are other places in CR aside from San Jose. By far, the most polution I contribute is during my anual trek across the country for Reteve. When I get there, I sit behind hundreds of idling engines, & the polution is so bad that the workers wear gas masks. This is an unnecessary waste of time & money—aside from creating a problema it claims to solve.

  • lem

    Where can i find an update about this bill?

  • Wendy H

    I have a prius which is a hybrid it’s a 2015 with only 15K miles. I tried that import/ customs fee page and it kept coming up as zero tax to import. I know that is not possible, but can anybody help me? I wanna move there asap. Thank you

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