[April 05 2012]
by Ranil Wijayapala
The Government decision to increase the import tax on motor vehicles was aimed at controlling the number of vehicles added annually to the vehicle fleet of the country as excessive number of vehicles have been imported to the country during the past three years, Acting Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said today. “We had no other intention behind this move other than controlling the number of vehicles added annually to the road network”, the Minister said.
He said the number of vehicles imported to the country has increased from 211,679 in 2009 to 523,963 in 2011. In the year 2010 also 469,707 vehicles have been imported to the country, the Minister added. Minister Abeywardena also denied that the decision was taken as a pre-condition for the approval of the IMF loan for Sri Lanka. "As a Government we had not succumbed to any conditions from the IMF to obtain any loan", the Minister added.
During the war period there was no such increase in the number of vehicles in the country and even the people who had money to buy vehicles did not opted to do so due to the situation prevailed in the country that time, the Minister said. “With the end of the war many people opted to buy vehicles making a rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles in the country and the road network cannot cope up with the excessive number of vehicles adding to the road network. As a responsible government we have to control the number of vehicles as the number of vehicles importing to the country increase at this rate in another three years vehicles will not be able to move on the roads”, the Minister pointed out.
The Minister also pointed out that the fuel consumption and the foreign exchange spent for the import of petroleum also rapidly increased during the past three years