The government has relaxed restrictions on vehicle imports, but the imposition of four layers of taxation, coupled with the lack of consideration for the manufacturing year specified by the President, has effectively dashed the hopes of bringing new vehicles into the country, parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekera said.
Addressing the media, he said the inability to import vehicles has made owning one an even more distant dream for many.
“The government has eased restrictions on vehicle imports, yet the inability to import vehicles has made owning one an even more distant dream for many,” he said.
He told the media that the current government came to power with grand promises to the general public, including the youth, during the previous elections, such as making the environment easier for them to afford at least a brand-new Japanese motorcycle and new vehicles.
The President promised to introduce procedures to import vehicles at lower costs. However, the government has relaxed the imports. But the relaxations were made and laws imposed making it unable to import any kind of vehicle.
“Four layers of taxation have been imposed on vehicle imports, including a special import tax based on the vehicle’s value, luxury tax, customs tax and Cost, Insurance, and Freight (CIF), along with the existing 18% VAT. As a result, the overall import tax on vehicles has increased significantly.
“Although vehicle importers requested the government to allow the import of vehicles more than five years old from the manufacturing year, the government has restricted imports to vehicles that are no more than three years old from their manufacturing date,” Jayasekera said.
“The unfortunate situation is that Japan has taken a decision to use their vehicles for a maximum of seven years in their country. With this decision, it has come to a situation where it is unable to find used vehicles from Japan that are less than seven years old from their manufacturing date. Therefore, the decision regarding vehicle imports has turned into a complete falsehood used to mislead the general public.
Although the President had ordered the maximum permissible age for imported vehicles to be extended to five years from their manufacturing date, state officials reduced it to a maximum of three years without adhering to his directive,” the MP said.
In reality, importing a vehicle less than three years old from its manufacturing date has become an extremely rare occurrence. Even if such a vehicle is found and imported into the country, its price can escalate to as much as Rs. 8 million, creating a significant financial burden for potential buyers, Jayasekera said.
However, the government has killed the dream of the people of getting a new vehicle, he added.
