New tax on bus imports for tourism purposes
Sri Lanka has imposed a new tax of Rs.1.5 million per bus imported by the tourism industry while extending the age of used buses for the industry to 10 years from 5 years, Treasury sources said.
Earlier this category of bus imports was tax free.
The new tax which came into effect last week is a move towards increasing revenue for government coffers, a senior Treasury official said, adding that used bus importers were given a concession to import 10 year old buses.
The used bus importers had made a proposal to the Treasury requesting to extend the age of used buses to 10 years as they can purchase such buses with good condition in Japan at reasonable prices, the sources said.
But the brand new bus importers were of the view that 10 year old buses were not suitable for tourist transportation.
Although the interior condition of a 10-year old bus used in Europe or Japan is in fair condition, it would have already spent 60-70 per cent of its technical life, they said.
“These buses will pollute the environment and will have heavy maintenance costs. Ideally we have to ban the use of any bus that is over 5 years for transporting tourists,” one source added. Sri Lanka’s inbound tourism transport sector is struggling to survive in the midst of a depleting vehicle fleet and the neglect of sustainable practices in the tourist transport service, industry officials disclosed.
They blamed the previous Tourism Ministry and Treasury authorities for not making any attempt to strengthen the tourist transport service by providing incentives for service providers enabling them to increase the vehicle fleet and by introducing green environmentally-friendly buses, cars and vans.
The need to increase the tourist transport vehicle fleet has been brought to the notice of the authorities by the Chauffeur Tourist Guide Lecturers’ Association of Sri Lanka (CTGLA) on many occasions but it went unheeded, Ranjith Sudasinghe, Assistant Secretary of the Association told the Business Times.
“Our association is a body of professionals trained and licensed by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and has been functioning for over two decades,” he said, adding that a vast majority of their members engage in providing their vehicles along with guide services to foreign tourists visiting the country.
The total investment by the Chauffeur Guides in providing these facilities had been nearly Rs.3 billion, he revealed.