Allow import of vehicles bought before March 20: SLAAJ

The Sri Lanka Automobile Association in Japan (SLAAJ) yesterday requested the Government to grant permission for vehicles that they had purchased before March 20 following the new regulations.

SLAAJ President S.A. Nishantha Meegalla told Daily Mirror that all relating to the purchased vehicles such as the chassis numbers and evidence to prove the purchase date had submitted to the Japanese Embassy office.

“1,364 vehicles are stuck at ports in Japan while paying demurrages for their parking areas. It is a huge cost and a big loss for the Association. Now it is becoming a very hard time even to maintain the services,” Mr Meegalla said.

He said all the vehicles were purchased and manufactured according to the local customer requirements. Therefore those vehicles unable to sell for other countries.

“If we sell those vehicles to other countries, we have to sell them half of the price that we bought despite the manufacturing cost,” he said.

"Therefore, the Association requests the Government to grant permission to only import those stuck vehicles to the country to cover their losses," Mr Meegalla said.

He said the Central Bank (CB) had directed all banks to suspend facilitating the importation of all types of motor vehicles for three months. The decision was announced on March 20.

Around June the government announced that the suspension of motor vehicle imports has been extended by another 3 months. 
"This made our members to keep their vehicles in the port and till to date."

According to the CB, the decision had been taken to ensure adequate liquidity in the market to facilitate smooth operations and sustain market confidence amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

Later, Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukella said on September 3, the Government had decided to extend the suspension of vehicle imports for one year for the time being.

The SLAAJ had issued a statement in this REGARD. 

"We express our understanding & intent to fully co-operate with the Sri Lankan Government on the decision made to temporarily suspend importation of motor vehicles & non-essential products to the country for a period of 3 months, given the current economic situation & the current epidemic faced by our country & by the rest of the world. We are deeply thankful & grateful to the Government of Sri Lanka for the steps initiated & implemented to overcome the current epidemic of Covid-19 & we living in Japan have realized that measures implemented by The Government of Sri Lanka is of world class.

In consideration of the situation faced by the Sri Lankan exporters in Japan on the temporary suspension of importation of motor vehicles to Sri Lanka for a period of three months, we wish to express that the members of SLAAJ & other Sri Lankan owned exporters are faced with a major difficulty. The premeditated purchases of motor vehicles for the Sri Lankan market by the Sri Lankan exporters in Japan are all of high value and suitable only for the Sri Lankan market. The re-sale of these vehicles in Japan would incur a loss of 30 to 40% on each unit to the exporters, which will be extremely difficult to sustain by the exporting companies. All of our businesses in Japan have been challenged at present due to the current critical economic condition in the world hence further losses as mentioned above could not be sustained by our companies.

Based on this, we wish to make a special request from our Government to enable us to export vehicles purchased up to the 19° March 2020 to Sri Lanka. In view of the government's decision to curtail the outflow of foreign currency from the country during this period of crisis, we wish to propose the following method to achieve this task while allowing us to export the vehicles purchased up to 19° March 2020 to Sri Lanka.

We realize if the L/C regulation is changed from Site L/C to Usance or Deferred L/C for a period of 180 or 360 days, the outflow of funds from the country will be after 180 or 360 days. At the same time the government will receive revenue through customs duty for these vehicles at the time of importation hence we believe that this would support the treasury department to overcome some of the immediate financial constrains faced by the Government & we would be glad to contribute to the cause at crucial times such as this.

We sincerely hope the above request will meet with our Government's understanding & support, encouraging us to continue our businesses in Japan at a period of crisis. Further losses to our businesses at present could not be sustained." (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)