Treasury says no increase in applications for duty-free vehicle permits

Treasury yesterday said that there hasn't been a sharp increase in applications seeking duty concessions on import of vehicles.

 “We have received only about 100 applications from the eligible government officers for import of vehicles on duty concessions after the recent excise duty revisions,” Director Department of Trade Tariff and Investment Policy in the Treasury Hiransa Kaluthanthri said.

“These applications might have been forwarded by them at least two weeks ago as the applications are channelled through the respective line ministries,” she added.

Kaluthanthri also said that some misleading media reports have been published stating that Treasury was flooded with applications submitted by government servants to obtain the duty free vehicle permits after the recent duty revisions.

Treasury said due to rapid increase of motor vehicle imports, the Government intends to keep it at a manageable level by increasing excise duty on vehicle imports from last 31 March midnight. However such measures will also help reducing the demand pressure on the foreign exchange and future excessive demand in petroleum imports too.  

It is expected that considerable amount of vehicle imports would drop due to the recent measures taken by the Government.

Before the tax revisions the lowest and highest effective tax rates were 40 per cent and 290 per cent respectively. Currently the highest ceiling is around 401 per cent and this is also very much below the highest rate of 524 per cent which was maintained prior to the revisions made in 2010.