Siyambalapitiya does a U-turn on vehicle imports

State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya 

• Opines proposal to lift import ban should be studied in depth after hinting of possibility last week
• Says rupee strengthening need to cover more ground as currency originally dipped by 78%

State Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said yesterday that the proposal to allow vehicle imports should be studied in depth in a situation where the dollar, which appreciated by 78%, has only depreciated by about 20%.

The minister points out that the value of the dollar, which rose from Rs. 202 to Rs. 360 against the dollar, has now come down to only Rs. 300.

Last week, Siyambalapitiya hinted that the Government is likely to resume vehicle imports to boost tax collection. (https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Govt-mulls-lifting-of-vehicle-import-restrictions/44-749364).

On Tuesday, during the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Economic and Physical Plans met under the chairmanship of MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage, proposals were made that vehicles should be imported under a credit scheme as well.

“The sectoral committee is very important and we should be thankful for them in identifying their interest to boost revenue streams of the Customs Department. But decisions should be made after carefully studying such cases. Our annual revenue target is usually Rs. 1,226 billion and if we calculate this for five months, it will be about Rs. 510 billion. But realistically, there is no specific value of income every month. Low income is expected in the first six months of the year. Accordingly, the figure for the first five months of this year is Rs. 333 billion. But our income is Rs. 330 billion. Accordingly, we have received 99% of the target income,” he added.

Noting that there were about 4000 items that were restricted from importing in 2022, he said only around 900 other items are remaining on the list and of that, over the import ban list 300 of the list is related to vehicle imports.

“As a country, we are trying to recover from a huge economic crisis. Therefore, instead of taking decisions based only on the outer surface, we should examine all the aspects and explore deeply the impact on the entire economy,” Siyambalapitiya said.