Vehicle Export Scheme Proposed to Replace Old Cars in Sri Lanka
Secretary-General of the Global Federation of Sri Lankan Business Councils (GFSLBC) and entrepreneur Sajeev Rajaputhra has proposed a mechanism to export old vehicles from Sri Lanka and replace them with newer imports as a way to address the country’s inflated vehicle market and aging fleet.
Speaking at a media briefing, Rajaputhra warned that vehicle prices in Sri Lanka are “artificially inflated” due to high taxes and import restrictions and cautioned that the situation could worsen as the existing fleet becomes obsolete.
He noted that Sri Lanka and Ethiopia are among the few countries where a vehicle can be bought, used for several years, and then resold at a higher price than its original purchase cost. “This bubble will burst at some point. Vehicles will become obsolete in five, ten, twenty, or thirty years. The question is, what will happen to their prices then?” he asked.
He suggested exploring the export of used vehicles to markets such as Africa, where there are no restrictions on the age of imported vehicles. However, he acknowledged that, under the current high local market values and taxes, exporting for a profit is not viable.
As an alternative, he proposed offsetting the gap between local and overseas vehicle values by reducing the tax on the replacement vehicle being imported. “If we can export a vehicle to another country, sell it at a reasonable price there, and then import a newer vehicle at a lower tax rate, we can gradually phase out old vehicles from Sri Lanka,” he said.
