VEHICLE PERMITS FOR GOVT. SERVANTS AGAIN

The Vehicle Import Permits offered to public officials and officials of the state corporations and statutory boards on a concessionary basis would be implemented again with amendments, the Finance Ministry said yesterday.

The ministry said in a media statement that it had received Cabinet approval for the programme, and the Industry and Investment Department had issued Circular No.01/2016 in this regard.

Accordingly, public officers and executive officers attached to state corporations and other Statutory Boards, doctors and legal officers in government service, university vice chancellors, university lecturers and executive grade officers of the university non-academic staff are entitled to receive vehicle permits on a Concessionary Basis Vehicle Permit Scheme.

The ministry said an applicant should have completed more than six years in state service to be eligible to receive the permit.

However, the limit of service in the state sector will be different for officers of state corporations and statutory boards.

An officer is entitled to only two Concessionary Vehicle Permits. After claiming the first vehicle permit, the second vehicle permit would be issued 10 years after the purchase of the first concessionary vehicle, the statement said.

In addition to Circular No.01/2016, Public Administration Circular No.22/99 will also be equally effective in this regard and, under this Circular, government officers of executive grades will be issued permits on a concessionary basis at the time of retirement.

The face value of each concessionary vehicle permit is US$30,000. A permit holder is entitled to a 50 percent tax waiver on the total tax to be paid for his or her selected vehicle.

State sector officers, who have already claimed two concessionary vehicle permits or more than that, will not be entitled to the new concessionary vehicle permit scheme.

The government has issued more than 38,000 vehicle permits since 2010 to state sector officers under the previous concessionary scheme. The value of tax waived by issuing concessionary vehicle permits to public officers exceeds Rs.143 billion.

The Circular relevant to this vehicle permit scheme can be downloaded from the official website of the Treasury, www. treasury.gov.lk under its Trade and Investment Policy Department tag.