State Minister of Finance Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena says that vehicle imports may have to be restricted due to the soaring number of vehicle registrations.

Official government statistics note that the number of vehicles imported during the first nine months of this year, have surpassed the total number of vehicle imports last year.

During the past nine months 491,632 vehicles have been registered – an increase of 62,076 vehicles registrations compared to last year.

The highest number of vehicles registration per month was reported in September with the number standing at 15,107.

However, during the same month last year only 4893 vehicles were registered.

The depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee compared to the US Dollar and the valuation method introduced by the Sri Lankan Government recently attributed to price of Japanese imports to soar by 700,000 to 1.8 Million rupees.

Speaking to News 1st, the  Sri Lankan vehicle exporters in Japan said that they have been severely inconvenienced due to the new price formula and added that all orders had been cancelled.

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