Dear Editor,
Right now Guyana is going downhill. The cost of living is going up; all prices have gone up; and some businesses are on the verge of closing down. Most businesses will tell you sales have dropped by 50%, and many who would not have thought of migrating have started to think of it. With the ban on used tyres life will be much worse; the gas price might go up given the sliding dollar. Transportation will go up, and many who are in the used tyre business will lose their jobs. In Berbice it’s even worse; rice, sugar and sawmilling are in trouble and many homes are thinking of how to make ends meet.
With the new law about importing cars no more than 8 years old, cars sales have dropped by 80%. Many dealers are already out of business, and the new tyres on imported cars will make it far worse. Japanese car companies who manafacture cars told me that in Japan used tyres are big business. Why is it that in Guyana used tyres are banned? They also told me that the tyres on the imported cars have 75% of life and those tyres are the best to use because they are not sold in the shops. There is no way a new tyre will outlast those coming on the imported cars.
Guyana is too poor a country not to import cars older than 8 years, because those cars will be far cheaper. At this time of struggle and hardship where will the poor find the money to put on new tyres? In addition, when people buy an imported car they change the rims on the car. They put on mag rims with a broader tyre, or bigger rims to balance the car better on the road, so it makes no sense to import cars with new tyres.
We do hope the people in authority who make the decisions, think it over for the betterment of the Guyanese people.
Yours faithfully,
Zakir Ally
