Heavy vehicles imported during restricted period to be released subject to surcharge

State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya says the heavy vehicles imported during the restricted period and still remain uncleared at ports will be released.

Thereby, the public transport buses and special purpose lorries, tankers/bowsers and trucks brought into the country while import restrictions on vehicles were still in effect and have not submitted the customs declarations can be released subject to a surcharge of 30%, after presenting facts to the Controller General of Imports & Exports. Earlier today (Aug. 15), the Finance Ministry issued a Gazette Extraordinary easing the limitations on importing public transport buses and other special purpose heavy vehicles for the first time since March 2020.

However, the order was made effective from August 14 (Monday).

As per the revised regulations, the government will also permit the importation of special-purpose vehicles such as fire trucks and garbage trucks.

The state minister is confident that allowing the importation of buses will help improve the country’s public transport facilities and boost the tourism sector.

This is the first time Sri Lanka rolled back the restrictions on imported vehicles that were imposed in March 2020. However, the import bans on passenger vehicles are unlikely to be lifted anytime soon.