Vehicles imported into Sri Lanka must be registered within 90 days – Ministry of Finance

Officials representing the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development stated that vehicle imports have been allowed under certain conditions. 

These conditions have been imposed pertaining to importation of vehicles in view of encouraging the revival of normal economic activities and safeguarding the economic stability of the country, while taking into account protecting foreign exchange reserves, discouraging the importation of an excess number of vehicles and keeping away unnecessary stocks of motor vehicles. 

Accordingly, vehicles that have been granted permission to be imported into Sri Lanka must be registered within 90 days, the Parliamentary Communications Department said in a statement.

Moreover, if 25% of the total number of vehicles imported by any importer in particular is not registered within 6 months, consensus of importation will be suspended, the officials said. A 3% fine will also be imposed on unregistered vehicles, subject to a maximum of 45%.

These details were disclosed during a meeting of the Committee on Public Finance held on 04.03.2025, Chaired by Member of Parliament Dr. Harsha de Silva took into consideration the Gazette Extraordinary Nos. 2421/ 04 and 2421/44 published under the Regulation under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, No. 1 of 1969, the statement added.

The Ministry officials stated that if anyone wish to import vehicles on a personal capacity only one vehicle can be imported whilst a trader does not have such condition.

The Committee also took into discussion regarding an appeal for policy support to safeguard Sri Lanka’s domestic electric vehicle industry. Officials stated that the proposed waiver of CID and surcharge for local manufactures using bonding facility to manufacture vehicles could be considered favorably going forward.

The Committee also took into consideration the Commercial Hub Regulation under the Finance Act, No. 12 of 2012 and approved the said Regulation. This Regulation was issued to release an additional 9000 MT of LP Gas to the Local market through LAUGFS Gas PLC within a period of 3 months until February 21, 2025 subjected to specific conditions. 

The meeting was attended by Hon. Deputy Ministers Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma and Chathuranga Abeysinghe and Members of Parliament Ravi Karunanayake, Harshana Rajakaruna, Dr. Kaushalya Ariyarathne, Wijesiri Basnayake, Thilina Samarakoon, and Lakmali Hemachandra, Attorney at Law, according to the Parliamentary Communications Department.