Parliamentary Committee reveals Govt. vehicles run at Rs. 300 per km, costs Rs. 20 bn more

• If these vehicles are hired from the private sector on a rent or lease basis, it is possible to run a kilometre with Rs. 100 or lesser amount

 By Ajith Siriwardana
Government vehicles which are running at a cost of Rs. 300 per kilometre can be run at a cost of 100, incurring some Rs. 20 billion to the government, a research paper submitted to the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy and Transport has revealed.  
This was revealed according to the data of a research paper prepared by the Department of Manpower and Employment on “Public Resource Management” which was presented at the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Energy and Transport recently.  

The research paper revealed that according to the statistics of the year 2022, government institutions own about 82,000 vehicles, of which about 76,000 are in running condition while around 5500 vehicles are not.  
According to the research, the cost of driving one kilometre of a vehicle in running condition is approximately between Rs. 300 and Rs.500 and found out that if these vehicles required by government institutions are hired from the private sector on a rent or lease basis, it is possible to run a kilometre with Rs. 100 or less amount.   
“If this process is followed by removing the state-owned vehicles, about 20 billion rupees of government expenditure can be saved,” the research revealed.  
Taking this information into account, the Chair of the committee Nalaka Bandara Kottegoda recommended that a sub-committee be appointed under the Chairmanship of Yadamini Gunawardena to conduct a thorough study of this research paper and submit a report to  Parliament.