News
Luxury vehicle racket: Companies must pay all dues
Five leading vehicle importers are under investigation for importing some 400 luxury vehicles and undervaluing them on arrival, a senior Customs official said yesterday. The probe is being carried out jointly by the Customs Department and the Ministry of Finance.
Last week The Sunday Times exclusively reported that 400 luxury vehicles were detained by the Customs for undervaluation. The companies are being investigated for declaring the automobiles as used vehicles when each of them had run only about 100 kilometres. The Sunday Times learns that more details of the transactions were collected this week as part of the inquiry. All the vehicles had been imported on duty free concessions granted to public servants.
The Government has lifted restrictions on the sale of duty free permits given to public servants. “We will be directing the companies to pay all taxes due instead of imposing a penalty. Thereby they will have to pay a tax based on the actual value of the vehicles,” an officer involved in the investigations said.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry’s Trade and Investment Policy Director General R. Semasinghe who was quoted in last week’s news item as saying that the 400 vehicles were detained at the Customs has written to the Sunday Times saying he was not contacted by the newspaper.
However, the Sunday Times’ records show that Mr. Semasinghe was contacted regarding the news item last week.