Transport Minister Kumara Welgama told Parliament today that laws would be brought to make it compulsory to paint private busses in blue, CTB busses in red and school busses in yellow.

He said it had been decided to have a specific colour for the private buses so that they could be identified easily. He said blue was chosen for the private busses as it was pleasing to the eye.

He said these new legislations would be presented to the House soon.

He added that the government had decided to give some concessions to the owners of less expensive vehicles. Therefore he said the levy charged for changing the body pf vehicle with an engine capacity below 1000 cc would be reduced from Rs 25,000 to Rs 500.  He said this would  help small and medium businessmen who use light vehicles like the Dimo Batta.

He said the laws pertaining to the purchase of vehicles at auction sales had also been eased.

He said such vehicles should be registered within six months under the new laws. These vehicles had to be registered within a month of purchase under the old law. (Yohan Perera)