Tourist transport sector gets 100 % leasing facility for cars, vans
Sri Lanka's tourism transport sector will get some relief with the government's decision to grant 100 per cent leasing facility from finance and leasing companies when purchasing vehicles.
The Finance Ministry announced recently that the tourism transport sector is exempted from the restrictions imposed on leasing of vehicles limiting the facility to 50 per cent in accordance with the 2017 budget proposal.
Tourist transport providers will now be able to purchase new vehicles on leasing without making any down payment as the ministry through the Central Bank has issued a directive to grant to 100 per cent leasing facility as the new regulations will not be applicable to them.
Sri Lanka's inbound tourism transport sector is just surviving with a depleted vehicle fleet and the sustainable practices in the tourist transport service have been neglected up to now despite their complains which went unheeded, a spokesman of the Chauffeur Tourist Guide Lecturers Association of Sri Lanka (CTGLA) Ranjith Sudasinghe told the Business Times.
The Tourism Ministry and Treasury authorities have been blamed for not making any attempt to strengthen the tourist transport service by providing incentives for service providers enabling them to increase the vehicle fleet and by introducing green environmentally-friendly cars and vans to attract tourists while protecting the environment.
The need to increase the tourist transport vehicle fleet has been brought to the notice of authorities by tourist transport service providers on many occasions but they were not given a fair hearing, he added.
Tourism has been bouncing back in the country and a group of businessmen engaged in transporting tourists requested assistance to improve the sector, the Finance Ministry media release revealed.
The total investment by the tourist transport service providers in providing these facilities had been nearly Rs.3 billion.
The CTGLA has made representations to the government on several previous occasions to grant them import licences with duty free concessions for the import of economical and environmentally-friendly passenger cars and vans for tourist transport.
They urged that the duty free permit scheme should also be extended to tourist transport service providers who earn much needed foreign exchange for the country.
Tourist transport service providers are handling airport pickup, inland transport and eventually airport drop of over 80 per cent of the tourists who visit Sri Lanka.