The government has been urged to introduce tougher controls in order to prevent old cars in poor condition being imported to Timor-Leste from Indonesia.
National MP Cesar Valente said the government should restrict old cars being used by the community because they often lead to accidents.
“Those incidents happen due to the age of vehicles and some of those cars are not in good condition,” he said.
He said that some cars purchased, but didn’t have proper documents and this had negative implications, especially for the economy because the community just spent their money, but didn’t receive any benefits.
He said old cars didn’t work for long before breaking down and just created more rubbish on the street.
He therefore called on the government to pay close attention to vehicles being imported into Timor.
In response to the issue, Second Technical Supervisor to the Deputy Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communication (MPWTC) Basilio M.X Texeira said the government had controls in place which were effective in preventing old cars coming into Timor.
He said old cars on the road had been brought into Timor a long time ago and their condition had since deteriorated.
“Old cars are not being imported because we have a law and we are controlling this,” he said.
However, he said the government was unable to ban unroadworthy cars as there was no legislation to prevent this.
This is in contrast to Singapore, he said, which has laws preventing old cars being imported into the country and restricts the use of unroadworthy or defective vehicles.
