Nov 09, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will cut taxes on electric cars by at least one million rupees, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.

Samaraweera said Taxes on the importation of electric vehicles including electric three wheelers and buses will also be reduced.

Finance Minister, however, said import taxes on vehicles powered by fossil fuel will be rationalized with new vehicle policy.

Accordingly, import tax on the high end fossil fueled cars will be increased by almost 2.5 million rupees a special tax on super luxury vehicles with an engine capacity exceeding 2,500 cc will also be imposed.

The import taxes on a diesel three wheeler will be increased by around 50,000 rupees.

He proposed to introduce a carbon tax where the applicable rates for a motor cycle, car and a passenger bus will be around 17 Cents, 1.78 rupees and 2.74 rupees per day.

Finance Minister proposed all vehicles in the country to be powered by non-fossil fuel sources by 2040.

To this end, all Government vehicles will be converted to hybrid or electric vehicles by 2025.

Through the motor vehicles excise duty and luxury tax revisions, the government expects 25 billion rupees while 2.5 billion rupees will be collected through the carbon tax for motor vehicles.