Grace period for vehicles with open papers to be registered extended to Dec. 31

29 November 2016 11:47 pm

The grace period of three months that had been given to vehicle owners with open papers to register their vehicles had been extended to December 31, Motor Traffic Department Commissioner General A.H.K. Jagath Chandrasiri said today.

Earlier the Government had announced a grace period that ran from September 1 to November 30.

He said the period had been extended following a request made by the Department to Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. "We made this request to the minister as there are many who have still not been able to convert the ownership of their vehicles to their name", he said.

“The Minister had discussed the issue in the Cabinet and informed the Department that the request had received Cabinet approval,” Chandrasiri said.

“The reason for this course of action is the difficulties faced by law enforcement authorities as vehicles with open papers were being used by their new owners for long periods under the previous owners’ names. Transferring the ownership becomes a problem in the event the original owner of the vehicle dies,” he explained. (Chaturanga Pradeep)