challenged to be imported and exempted from Government taxes.

The Motor Car Amendment (No. 5) Act will create a new class of public service vehicles.

According to Government Sen. Larry Scott , who piloted the legislation through the Upper House, those who imported such vehicles "for hire or reward'' by the physically challenged will not have to pay regular licence and registration fees.

They will also be exempted from some Customs duties.

"This is a way of encouraging a merchant to offer this service for the physically challenged,'' Sen. Scott said. "Government does not want to get into this. It will cost too much.

"Therefore, we said if an owner of a commercial vehicle or a physically challenged person wants to bring in such a vehicle, we will give them exemption too. We're bending over backwards to accommodate the physically challenged.'' While acknowledging the need for such vehicles and exemptions, Opposition Senate Leader Milton Scott said he hoped that airport limousine services would not make all their vehicles accessible in order to take advantage of the tax exemptions.

"If this is the case Government would not be collecting any fees,'' he noted.

He also asked what other incentives were in place to enable other public service vehicles to be accessible.

Government Sen. Yvette Swan pointed out that Government came up with the amendment after it was noted that there were no public service vehicles for wheelchair-bound visitors.

"PTB (Public Transportation Board) brought in a couple of years ago one of the kneeling buses but because Bermuda does not have curbs, it was found that those are not effective at all,'' she said. "Those are basically for senior citizens who have difficulty getting on buses.''