Vehicle importers on their last legs seek meeting with President

The Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka gave a press briefing in Colombo recently to announce their survival plan to keep the industry going forward ‘making little adverse impact’ on foreign exchange reserves. Pix by Dharmasena Welipitiya

by Sanath Nanayakkare

The Vehicle Importers Association of Sri Lanka has requested a meeting with President Gotabhaya Rajapakse to discuss the challenges facing the industry due to the ongoing ban on the importation of motor vehicles. The import ban, which has been in force since March 2020, has gravely impacted vehicle importers and all related industries.

VIASL wishes to present a number of proposals they have prepared that would allow importers to survive while controlling the outflow of foreign currency.

Vehicle importers as well as related service providers are presently facing severe difficulties maintaining their business premises and paying off bank loans, rent and the salaries of their employees. Currently there are a large number of importers in the country who are without a vehicle in their showrooms and are struggling to survive and to pay their employees. If the ban is to continue they will be forced to close down their business and make all their employees redundant. VIASL calculates that around 100,000 direct and indirect employees will have to be made redundant, while also placing the 350,000-400,000 dependants of these employees in dire straits.

Some vehicle importers as well as government permit holders have opened letters of credit prior to the import ban, and should be provided with the opportunity to import these vehicles. Since all circulars regarding clearing of imported vehicles from Sri Lankan ports were published on a retrospective basis, there are several permit holders as well as importers who are struggling to import the vehicles they have ordered and confirmed legally through a valid letter of credit.

“We have a survival plan that would save both the industry and the country’s foreign exchange reserves. We have made it after serious consideration of the foreign exchange outflow, maintaining the industry at a sustainable level for the benefit of our employees under a well-regulated system. We’d like to present our case to the President and Dr. P.B. Jayasundara. It’s been three months since we made a request to meet with them. We hope that they will lend us an ear at the earliest possible time”, they said.