Public officers back in the driving seat of new duty free vehicles

The Finance Ministry said yesterday that the Government had decided to reintroduce its previous program with amendments to provide vehicle permits to public officers, officers of state corporations and statutory boards on a concessionary basis.

Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake presented the Cabinet paper in this regard on 26 March 2016 and it received Cabinet approval on 16 July 2016. Accordingly, the Industry and Investment Department has issued the Circular No. 01/2016 in this regard.

Public officers and executive officers attached to the state corporations and other statutory boards, doctors and legal officers attached to government service, university vice chancellors, university lecturers and executive grade officers attached to university non-academic staff are entitled to receive vehicle permits under this concessionary basis vehicle permit scheme.

Under the new circular, the period of service completed by individual officers in the state sector will be taken into consideration before concessionary vehicle permits are issued. Accordingly, an applicant should complete more than six years in state service to be eligible to receive a vehicle permit. However, this limit of service in the state sector will differ for the officers of state corporations and statutory boards.

One officer is entitled to only two concessionary vehicle permits.  

After claiming the first vehicle permit, the second vehicle permit will be issued 10 years after the purchase of the first concessionary vehicle. In addition to Circular No.01/2016, Public Administration Circular No.22/99 will also be equally effective in this regard and, under this circular, government officers of Executive Grade will be issued permits under the concessionary basis at the time of their retirement.

The face value of each concessionary vehicle permit is $ 30,000. A permit holder is entitled to 50% tax waive of the total tax to be paid for his or her selected vehicle.

The state sector officers, who have already claimed two concessionary vehicle permits or more than that, will not be entitled to the new concessionary vehicle permits scheme.

The Government has issued more than 38,000 vehicle permits to state sector officers under the previous concessionary scheme since 2010. The value of tax waive by issuing concessionary vehicle permits to public officers exceeds Rs. 143 billion.

The circular relevant to this vehicle permit scheme can be downloaded from the official website of the treasury, www.treasury.gov.lk under its Trade and Investment Policy Department tag.