KUALA LUMPUR: Almost 80% of the second-hand car dealers in Malaysia are operating without a permit.

Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Car Dealers and Credit Companies Association president Khoo Kah Jin said dealers had complained they were unable to obtain police permits to operate their businesses because of a technicality in the implementation of the Second-hand Dealers Act 1946.

Khoo said this was because they were currently listed in the same category as scrap metal dealers.

“We are under the first schedule of the Act, which is a licence to deal in second-hand goods, as well as the second schedule, which includes scrap metals,” he told a press conference organised by Gerakan Public Service and Complaints Bureau chief Wilson Lau Hoi Keong yesterday.

He added that there were between 3,000 and 4,000 second-hand car dealers in the country.

Khoo said that since the police had frozen permits for scrap metal dealers due to the increase in thefts, it was nearly impossible for second-hand car dealers to obtain the permits.

He said it also posed a problem with the dealers’ local councils who could not issue them an operating licence without a police permit.

On the other hand, the police would refuse them permits without an operating licence.

“It is a very frustrating chicken-and-egg situation,” said Khoo.

Khoo also said this situation encouraged corruption and bribery practices between the dealers and police as there were instances where dealers would be forced to pay bribes to policemen to continue operating in peace.

“We want them to follow the Act strictly and list us under the first schedule so we can operate with­­- out needing to resort to bribery,” he said.

The association will be submitting a memorandum to the Home Minis-try and Inspector-General of Police sometime next week with Lau’s assistance.

Federal CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin said it was true that any business that sold second-hand goods had to obtain a permit to operate, whether it was used cars or scrap materials.

He added the police conducted regular meetings with second-hand car dealers to ensure they complied with the regulations.

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