COLOMBO, June 15 (Xinhua) — Sri Lankan authorities have formulated an initial roadmap to ease restrictions on motor vehicle imports by 2025, local media quoting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said here Friday.
According to the IMF, this plan will commence with the imports of public passenger and special purpose vehicles in the third quarter of 2024, followed by goods transport vehicles in the fourth quarter of the same year.
By 2025, Sri Lanka will completely lift import restrictions on all motor vehicles, the IMF said.
Sri Lanka imposed a ban on vehicle imports due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 and 2022 and continued with the decision due to a subsequent economic crisis faced by the country.
The Sri Lankan government restricted the import of 1,465 items in August 2022 due to the economic crisis but lifted restrictions on most of those items on several separate occasions.
Official data show that Sri Lanka’s total import expenditure in 2022 amounted to over 18 billion U.S. dollars, recording a decline of 11.4 percent from 2021.
Source Agencies
