Rising vehicle ownership shatters go-green plan
View(s):Sri Lanka’s plan to go green by removing petrol or diesel vehicles from the roads by 2040 will become a difficult task with the rising number of vehicle owners in the island, motor traffic experts warned.
In terms of vehicle ownership, Sri Lanka has overtaken its neighbour – India with 76 cars per 1000 people whereas India has just 32 cars per 1000 people and China 32, they said quoting findings of the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognised sources.
Fossil –fuel burning vehicle imports should be curtailed to achieve this target but the government’s action to provide duty slashed car permits to senior public officials with unprecedented concessions and tax reductions on small cars goes against the green strategy, they added.
The Finance Ministry will find it difficult to implement the 2018 budget proposal of replacing all state-owned vehicles with electric or hybrid models by 2025, a move that will be extended to private vehicles by 2040 as it has to adjust the fiscal policy in accordance with the country’s political situation, a senior government official said.
Sri Lanka has over 6.8 million vehicles, most imported from Japan and India, on its roads including nearly 720,000 cars.
The government will have to phase out its fleet of diesel and petrol vehicles including buses over the next eight years, switching to electric or hybrid models, he said adding that private owners have until 2040 to replace their cars, tuk-tuks and motorcycles, when the country plans to no longer allow any fossil fuel-burning vehicles on its roads.
To encourage citizens to replace their cars the government announced several measures including slashing taxes on electric cars and, introducing a new carbon tax on fossil fuel-burning vehicles.
According to the 2018 budget the tax on electric cars will be reduced by over a million rupees (US$6,600) to encourage motorists to switch to clean energy and import tax on large cars will be hiked by nearly $17,000.