PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) has urged potential car buyers to do so before April 1, 2015 as most car companies planned to reduce their inventories with attractive offers.

Its president, Datuk Aishah Ahmad, said the companies wanted to start selling the cars with Goods and Services Tax (GST) on April 1 and were reducing their stocks in which the Sales and Services Tax (SST) had been paid.

"Even though some car companies would reduce the price come April 1, the current offer is better. After April 1, they would only be able to claim back only 20 per cent of SST paid," Aishah told reporters after the 16th MAA's annual general meeting here today.

Aishah said the 20 per cent applied to all parties involved in the supply chain, which meant that if there were unsold stocks after April 1, they would either pass on the 80 per cent of the remaining SST to customers or absorb it.

She said apart from GST, the more pressing issue now was the exchange rate, as most companies were paying the completely-knocked down and completely built-up (CBU) vehicle taxes and other multi-sourcing parts in US dollar, which was appreciating against the ringgit.

"We must bear in mind that car prices go up every year. So not every company will have saving from GST, from the 10 per cent SST to six per cent GST, as the exchange rate is now playing the biggest factor in determining car prices.

"Therefore when they do their computation, they will need to decide whether there is a possibility to reduce, maintain or increase the price," Aishah said.

She said car companies would also be expected to announce their lists of vehicle prices in the first week of April following the GST implementation.

Moving forward, she said, with the implementation of GST, the sales of vehicle were expected to improve, following a slower demand seen for the first three months of this year compared with last year. -- BERNAMA