Vehicle imports face a special surcharge for three months as Sri Lanka moves to protect foreign reserves amid dollar pressure.
Vehicle imports will face a special surcharge as Sri Lanka moves to manage foreign exchange pressure and protect its existing dollar reserves.
Finding solutions to the country’s foreign exchange crisis and safeguarding available foreign reserves received special attention during a Cabinet discussion.
Addressing the gathering, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake emphasized that foreign exchange must now be used with highly responsible and systematic management.
He also pointed out that securing foreign exchange remains an extremely difficult and challenging task for a country like Sri Lanka, which is heavily dependent on imports.
For that reason, the President said it would be necessary to restrict the importation of non-essential goods into the country.
He further explained what types of items could be restricted under such measures.
However, he said careful consideration must be given to the issue because something considered non-essential by one person could be essential to another.
A significant portion of the country’s total dollar reserves is spent on importing fuel and motor vehicles.
Since there is absolutely no possibility of stopping fuel imports, the President said vehicle imports would have to be temporarily controlled as a measure.
However, he pointed out that a fair and alternative decision must be reached.
He warned that if vehicle imports are completely banned, there is a risk of entirely collapsing the vehicle market sector, which is slowly recovering after great difficulty.
Accordingly, the Cabinet decided to impose a special surcharge to discourage vehicle imports.
The measure will be implemented for the next three months.
