29 June 2016 12:00 am
The also learned that politicians buy high end vehicles such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo and Audi from these permits. A source that wished to remain anonymous pointed out that neither do they purchase any vehicles manufactured in Japan nor do they purchase any vehicles imported to the country. “They buy these vehicles from the individual franchise owners.” An industry source further confirmed that some of the popular vehicles include BMW 7 series, BMW X6 SUV, Mercedes Benz S class series, Mercedes Benz GLS SUV, Range Rover Sport and Toyota Land Cruiser Sahara.
With a supplementary estimate of a staggering Rs. 1.67 billion passed recently for the allocation of vehicles for various ministries, the so-called promises are slowly being swept under the carpet. On an interesting note, a MP fighting against corruption in the present regime who wished to remain anonymous confirmed that 207 members of the cabinet have already sold their vehicle permits.
When the Dailymirror inquired about this in detail JVP Parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake mentioned that all ministers in the UNP have received a vehicle in addition to the permit and that this procedure was exercised during the MR regime as well. He further stated that the permits received at US $ 65,000 are being sold at rates that go up to Rs. 20 million. In an attempt to shed light on this issue, the Dailymirror spoke to a few individuals in various fields.
The government therefore will have to undertake reforms as an alternative in the short run. In order to cover up the expenditure they will have to increase vehicle taxes and even will have to burrow as they have done now. But they definitely have to think beyond that. Alternatives would be to privatise state-owned enterprises, privatise projects, power plants, airports etc., and hand them over to the private sector. The government can call in investors to engage in these projects because they look at the Return of Investment (ROI). Definitely the government will have to bring about a few fundamental changes in the
long run.”
At the start of the regime they said they won’t give permits. If we look at India, they produced Ambassador Cars which were given to the bureaucrats to travel in. They didn’t have to import cars for that. This in turn saved money and encouraged the Indian car manufacturers to produce more cars. Although Upali Mazda cars were manufactured the entire business closed down.
This is the disadvantage of having an open economy. Our people don’t continue with policies but they have ad hoc methods. People are left in a dire state and these ministers keep on spending lavishly. In the end, poverty is increasing and this should stop immediately. ”
In his comments, Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment and Welfare Ranjan Ramanayake said
“The Rajapaksas should be responsible for this chaos. They went in super luxury flights with the VVIP kits on, spending our people’s money for their lavish expenses and here we are today, suffering to pay their debts.
We were appointed to serve the people and make a change. We shouldn’t be repeating what the Rajapaksa & Co. did but we should always set an example to the people. What I suggest is that we should all contribute to release the country and its people from this debt burden. Once it’s done, everybody will be able to utilize their perks and benefits lavishly.”
In his comments Finance State Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said that he couldn’t give any information regarding the transactions that have taken place with regard to the vehicle allocations.
My question to them is at a time like this when the treasury has gone bankrupt, why do they need vehicles? Some ministries got two vehicles. Earlier there was a law to return the vehicles after a period of five years but this is not exercised anymore. A cabinet minister gets a vehicle worth Rs. 3.5 million and a deputy gets a vehicle worth Rs. 2.8 million. What is this joke? When we are facing an economic crisis like that today, I wonder why these ministers need two vehicles.
There are few questions that still remain unanswered. For example, during the time of the MR regime, there were around 1500 vehicles at the Presidential secretariat.
What happened to these vehicles? During the same period, there were 108 cabinet ministers and the staff of every ministry had vehicles.
Where are these vehicles today? Also during the CHOGM vehicles worth Rs. 400 million were brought down for each country leader to travel around. But where are they now? At the beginning of this regime they promised to be a cabinet that will reduce the expenses. It is not fair by the public to see them enjoying their perks and benefits when the rest of the country is suffering.”
“Therefore we have to first identify if the vehicle runs on petrol or diesel and also whether its hybrid or electric. Thereafter we identify the Harmonized System (HS) code from the engine CC.
Then for the vehicle value there is a minimum tax, for vehicles that have a higher value of this tax we include the duty value. In the case of permits this is different. This is the first time that ministers got a 100% tax concession. Earlier the normal tax concession was 30-40%.”