Anatomy of Rolls Royce import

The news that eight Rolls Royce cars have arrived in the country for the first time following formal commercial import procedures over the past six months may cause some unease as an immediate reaction. But the unsettling feeling may get somewhat quieted when it is known that a certain type of the world's most luxurious car has been imported. Although these eight cars are still the most expensive cars ever imported over the past two decades, they are electric models the company has been producing of late.

The advantage of these cars is primarily their environmental non-pollution but what really prompted the importers and customers to procure those is the duty waiver on electricity-driven cars. Two of the cars were ordered by separate customers and the rest were imported by industrial groups for their own use. When the orders were placed with car traders and the manufacturer of the cars is not known. Most likely, a few of those were ordered before the August 5 political changeover.

Each of the luxury cars costs, according to a report carried in a contemporary, more than Tk46 million but import duty has been a modest 89.32 per cent. So the import duty stood at Tk41 million for each car and the total cost amounted to nearly Tk90 million. Had the cars not been electric ones, the import duty would be a whopping 826.60 per cent and the duty alone would be in the range of Tk 380 to 400 million. Surely not many could afford this extra buck on duty but some possibly could.

Possession of this ultimate brand of four wheeler is something special the aristocrats the world over savour. In Bangladesh aristocrats are hardly the top moneyed class. It is the ultra-rich or, as some would like to call, filthy rich who have the money at their disposal to own such cars. But they did not possibly go for the brand because it would have drawn closer attention from agencies like the National Board of Revenue and Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) or social backlash. What happened during the previous army-backed government may be an indication. At that time quite a few of the expensive cars were abandoned on the street just in panic. In case the owners who illegally imported those in collusion with the custom, excise and vat department got identified, they either hid those or abandoned on the unlikely points of street at wee hours!  

Yet the ultra-rich section of society cannot avoid some vanity for societal pressures and pulls. For example, in some posh areas of Dhaka City, the residents' vanity is well fed if they keep their expensive cars right in front of their gates. Whether they drive those expensive cars or not, is immaterial; they want to show their prized possessions off. But after a movement of the August 5 order, the owners became cautious. The cars they deliberately placed for public view have suddenly disappeared. So the import of the more expensive and luxurious cars at this time could not happen unless those were ordered earlier.

The fact is money talks and does so in weird ways. Cars are a symptom, not the malaise. When the ill-gotten money accumulated at the expense of the rest of society starts talking, no one knows how the process will end up. For example, the Rolls Royce Beximco imported was burnt down. The system that gives rise to mindless inequality in society with no scientific and technological invention accompanied with--- more often than not--- devious development of entrepreneurships and businesses, presents opportunities for its correction. So, the nations that can learn lessons from the reversals of fortunes and mend their ways of wealth creation and its distribution in order to ensure socio-economic justice, have the right to live in peace and harmony. Bangladesh has one such opportunity right now, much will depend on how the country grabs it to rectify its system.

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