Finance Minister orders probe into tsunami relief vehicles

Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has ordered a probe into imports of high-value vehicles for (2005) post-tsunami relief which were allegedly given to third parties without paying taxes and depriving the state of billions of rupees. This was brought to light when a vehicle imported for a UN agency to carry out tsunami relief work in 2005 was involved in an accident on June 10, 2015 in Tangalla. The vehicle had been used illegally, violating Sri Lankan laws, the ministry said in a media release on Wednesday. The Minister has instructed the Director General of Customs R. Semasinghe to investigate as to how a vehicle imported by the World Food Program (WFP) ended up with a third party. “The Director general has been asked to find out how many such vehicles had been imported on duty free basis to carry out emergency relief operations, but have ended up in private hands depriving the state of due revenue. It is believed that hundreds of vehicles had been imported duty free and most of them have disappeared and efforts will be made to trace them and recover the revenue that is due to the state,” the release said.