Right-hand-drive cars will soon receive special license plates and will be subject to taxes following Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call on Friday to legalize the vehicles, officials said Sunday.
Chum Eak, secretary of state at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said his ministry will offer the number plates to owners of vehicles with steering columns on the right-hand side after they have paid a new tax on their cars to the Finance Ministry.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s annual conference in Phnom Penh on Friday, Hun Sen called for right-hand-drive vehicles already in the country to be legalized, though he ordered officials in Cambodia’s border provinces to prevent further imports. The vehicles have not previously been taxed.
Chum Eak said it is very difficult to switch a vehicle’s steering column from the right to the left. Owners therefore use fake license plates and try to avoid the traffic police, he added. “When drivers flee the police they cause accidents,” he said.
According to Jean Van Wetter of Handicap International, nearly a quarter of all car accidents last year involved right-hand-drive cars.
People often buy the cars as they are for sale cheaply in Thailand. The transport ministry does not have statistics on how many such vehicles are in the country.
Opposition lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang praised the move to legalize the vehicles, which he said will increase tax revenues. Traffic accidents should not be blamed on right-hand-drive cars, he said. Many accidents result from speeding and drunk driving and, he said, “mostly because people don’t comply with the traffic law” rather than because of car design, he said.
(Additional reporting by Douglas Gillison)
