CMTA calls for vehicle imports upto USD 400 Mn under quota system
The Ceylon Motor Traders’ Association (CMTA) said that Sri Lanka should once again allow motor car imports up to the annual value of USD 400 million once again.
“This should be done under a quota system,” Chairman – CMTA told Charaka Perera at a breakfast meeting yesterday.
“Sri Lanka with the IMF EFF facility is now in the right path of recovery and the country can now look at allowing motor car imports. However there were huge issues three years ago when there was a huge ‘Gray’ market with imported cars compromising quality. The classic example of this is the import of Nissan Leaf cars when the Nissan Company in Japan clearly said that those vehicles were not suited for Sri Lankan climate conditions.”
Sri Lanka had to reinvest around USD 20 million to purchase new hybrid batteries, he said. “This time around we want the government to give us an opening to import cars for the annual value of USD 400 million. This should be done under a quota system.”
He also said that the current vehicle fleet used in Sri Lanka is over 10 years old and due to the automobile import ban Sri Lanka lost around 15,000 jobs and 7 % of tax revenue from vehicle imports.”
He said that before the import ban Sri Lanka’s annual motor car import bill was around USD 815 million in 2019. “However in the last two years despite an import ban Sri Lanka imported non essential items like finish garments to the value of USD 210 million despite having vibrant local manufacturing. In addition there were also other imports like electrical appliances, (USD 739 Mn) fish (USD 350 Mn.) and cosmetics USD 210. This total was over USD 1.5 billion.
“Also Sri Lanka imported fruits to the value of USD 816 million in the last two years.”
He also said that lifting of the import ban on automobiles will also bring down the high unreasonable price in the second hand car market.
Perera also made an appeal to the Japanese Ambassador MIZUKOSHI Hideaki, who was the guest speaker at the event to woo Japanese automobile component manufacturers to open manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka with the main objective of exports.