As two weeks have passed following the governments decision to completely lift the vehicle import ban imposed in 2020, vehicle importers have raised several concerns, which are hampering the industry.
In a media briefing, Chairman of the Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka, Indika Sampath Merenchige highlighted several issues, including the issue of leading Japanese banks denying Letter of Credits (LC) issued by Sri Lankan banks.
“Due to the improper decision taken by the government in 2020 when the vehicle import ban was imposed, leading Japanese banks are now now valuing Sri Lankan LCs, which is causing major issues for vehicle importers” he said.
He went to add that due to the wrong decisions taken by the Finance Ministry at that time headed by Secretary of Finance P. B. Jayasundara to ban imports of vehicle which has already issued LCs, leading banks in Japan have now denying LCs issues by Lankan banks.
While requesting the government to intervene to solve this issue, Merenchige further requested the government to correct the technical issue regarding the manufacture date of the vehicle instead of the manufactured year, which has restricted them from importing vehicles only 2 years old or newer.
“Due to this issue, we have only limited number vehicles in auctions which are increasing the demand for these vehicles, which in turn is increasing the vehicle prices” he said.
We urge the government to increase this age limit to 5 years, so that there are more vehicles available with less demand and lower prices, which will benefit the middle class people who are dreaming to by a car” he added. (NewsWire)