The Electric Transportation bill was approved by congress in Costa Rica back in December 2017; the bill is intended to promote the use of electric vehicles through the creation of tax exemptions of up to 100% depending on the cost of the car, these measures hope to bring down contamination levels and the use of fossil fuels replacing them for clean energies.

Now, two months after the approval of this bill, and 20 days after it was officially published, there are at least 22 electric cars stuck in Customs; the agencies that imported the cars state that Aduanas (customs) informed them they have to wait for the official regulations to be able to clear and release the cars with the new tax exemptions established in the new Law.
This is happening despite the fact that the General Direction of Treasury had already clarified some weeks back that the Law established that only the tax exemptions for electric car parts would require specific regulations.

Agency Grupo Q (Hyundai) has 20 Ioniq electric cars stuck in customs while Grupo Automotriz has 2 vehicles Ford Focus in the same situation.

Grupo Q presented a formal request to clarify the situation since the Law does not mention any regulations; the inquiry is waiting the analysis and response from the Customs General Directorate.

Other agencies confirm they already have clients waiting for the arrival of electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf, but they are waiting for this aspect to be clarified.
According to a publication by newspaper La Nacion, Priscilla Piedra, general director of Treasury confirmed that “According to the text approved, the only thing that requires official regulations are the vehicle parts, the rest (tax exemptions on vehicles) go into effect at the moment the law was published”. Piedra also stated that the only thing they could require is an authorization from Treasury Authorities which requires that the cars comply with the characteristics established in the Law and to get the authorization the requests must be made through the Exonet system by the agencies importing the cars.

Excessive bureaucracy or lack of communication between the different parts involved, the fact is that the users end up being affected.