Top Gear

Nov 02, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka imported over 10,000 cars in the four months after import duty was slashed in June this year while state revenue has also soared, a senior finance ministry official said.



The tax reduction brought down excise duty on a Maruti car, a popular model, to 90 percent from 183 percent.

In the first nine months of this year, the government earned about 15 billion rupees on taxes on vehicle imports, said S R Attygalle, director-general of fiscal policy.

In the January-September 2010 period, the government earned 9,920 million rupees on excise duty on vehicle imports alone compared with only 1,995 million rupees in the same 2009 period, he told Vimasuma.

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"Apart from excise duty, there are other taxes on vehicle imports such as value-added tax, port and airport levy, and customs duty which all enabled the government to earn about 15 billion rupees from vehicle imports in the first nine months of this year.

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Atygalle said 11,815 cars were imported in to Sri Lanka in the nine months to September 2010, compared with only 1,282 cars imported in the same 2009 period.

"Since June, when the import taxes were slashed, to September, 10,515 cars