Motor traders prevent attempt to register used vehicles as new vehicles
Sri Lankan motor traders have been able to prevent an attempt made to register used vehicles imported into the country as brand new vehicles.
Outgoing President of Ceylon Motor Traders’ Association(CMTA), Thilak Gunasekera said that representations have been made to the relevant authorities on the danger of such decisions and the association was able to stop this attempt convincing the authorities the disastrous consequences.
He was delivering his farewell speech at the 94th Annual General Meeting of the Ceylon Motor Traders’ Association in Colombo recently.
Mr. Gunasekera held the presidency of the association for four consecutive years rendering a yeoman service for the benefit of motor traders in collaboration with relevant ministries and departments including the Treasury, Customs and the Motor Traffic Department sometimes fearlessly arguing with bureaucrats who bring in ad hoc policies and taxation based on their own theories time to time.
Picture shows President CMTA Thilak Gunasekera, Commissioner General of Motor Traffic S.H. Harishchandra (chief guest) at the AGM and office bearers of the association.
He told the gathering that the struggle for existence in the Sri Lanka motor trade yet continues even though it contributes in no small measure to the country’s GDP.
The association has been in the past few months campaigning very vigorously against the action taken by Customs for not accepting the manufacturers’ invoice price and arbitrarily giving a price of their own.
Because of this, members are faced with severe hardships as they are unable to pay the additional costs and the association will strive hard to achieve positive results, he added.
He revealed that he along with representatives of the association held very cordial meetings with the Commissioner General of Motor Traffic, DG Customs and the Chairman of the National Transport Commission successfully on various issues that have sprung up time to time.
But unfortunately the policy makers in Sri Lanka were not considering the revenue contributed by the members of the CMTA to the Government, the employment opportunities offered, the contribution to the environment, the investments made and CSR activities, he claimed. Outlining the present situation in the industry he said, that according to the Central Bank’s statistics for 2013, expenditure on vehicles and parts imports recorded a decline of 17 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012.
The share of imports of vehicles and parts in total imports increased to 11 per cent in 2013, a 50 per cent increase as against its share in 2012 which stood at 7 per cent. This was due to a fall in other imports such as fuel, he added.
The declining trend of expenditure on imports of vehicles and parts started from 2012 with the tax hike introduced in March 2012 and thereafter in an ad-hoc manner.
India continued to dominate the imports of motor vehicles into Sri Lankaaccounting for 72 per cent.
With the drop in imports the registration of new motor vehicles also decreased drastically when compared with the previous year by 18 per cent.
In 2012 the total new vehicle registration was 397,295. In 2013 it had come down to 326,651, he added.