Hundreds of supercars ‘missing’

Customs officials are scratching their heads and trying to figure out what happened to hundreds of high-end cars that just disappeared.

Customs officials can’t account for up to 500 imported cars which have disappeared from privately held warehouses where they were supposed to be held until buyers could be found who would have to pay the car’s purchase price, plus around 200-percent tax.

The director-general of the Customs Department, Somchai Sujjapongse, said he believes that the missing cars may have been taken and sold illegally without paying the duties.

Apparently the cars vanished two months ago and customs has been searching for them. Since then, around 100 cars have been found, the Bangkok Post reports.

Import cars tax evasion has been a long-standing problem in Thailand.

On Monday the Customs Department held an auction to sell off seized cars including Mercedes-Benz, Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche, Lexus, Mini, and a Lamborghini Aventador that fetched nearly THB20 million.

Not a bad deal, considering that buying an Aventador through legal channels runs about THB36.5 million.

Last year the Department of Special Investigations investigated thousands of “supercars” assembled locally in Thailand and believed part of a tax evasion scam. Many were seized as they were found to have been wrongly registered as locally assembled to evade taxation.

 

Photo: Lamborghini



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