Budget - Impact On Vehicle Prices

tilvin · November 29, 2015

On 11/28/2015 at 11:16 PM, kchemist said:
Well, this is my first comment and my apologies if I m breaking any rules or feels like I m coming at hard on people with permits. I have an opinion on this matter I thought of sharing that here. Yes, I think cancellation of permits is one of the good thing done by this budget. If govt was giving permits based on education level, then this should be given to private sector too. For ex-majority of Eng, Accountants, Lawyers, Scientists don't get this privilege. Some of their salaries are lower than govt employees. Salary of a private employee depends on many factors (i.e. company, seniority etc etc.). Since this is not practical for the country it is better not to have this method.
Doctors bringing another argument that is they are underpaid and they take US, Canada, the UK for example. But they never take the examples of countries like SL (i.e. India, Pakistan, BD, etc etc). Doctors in those countries work as much as doctors in SL maybe even more, but they don't have such privileges. And doctors in most countries (if not all) have spend money on their medical degree. I m all in for increasing govt salaries (specially those educated) but answer to that is not permit.

Another unfair thing is they get these permits every five years. If they want a car they should only get 1 for entire life because they can simply fund their next car by selling the current car. Which they eventually do and make a handy profit and import a new car for the same money that they sold the five years old car.

I saw there is a proposal that govt is going to give 50k more per month for the personal who uses their own car. So that is a good step. So it will increase their salary and also they will get 3 mil more during 5 years, and that is plenty more than they would be getting through a permit.

Another unfair thing with this permit strategy is how they treat foreign expats. They are not given any duty concession even though they bring foreign currency. IMO govt should give a certain percentage of their remittance back to them as a duty free (For ex person remits $ 100k will get a $20k allowance).

By making such a comment I might have made lots of enemies in this forum but this is how I feel about this matter.

Hi Buddy,

By making this comment I feel you have made lot of friends... for you. I am one of those...... What I feel is, by respecting doctor profession it is fair enough to give them permit and salary hike. But government should put a STRICT rule that if a doctor works in government hospital, he or she should NOT allowed to do private practice. Then they can concentrate more on their work and can serve patients very well in the government sector.

Thanks.......

kusumsiri · November 29, 2015

@kchemist : Your strongest point is "one permit for entire life" and its fair enough. This can apply for all employees who entitled for permits and MPs and ministers too. Honestly there are real "doctors"among some ලේ මාපිලුන්.

@tilvin : While medical students & doctors (+ some others ) against to private medical colleges, they dont up their hands against to private hospitals. Why is that ?

I too in your gang. We can make a big community and force to gov.

AbeysinghE · November 29, 2015

@Kchemist: Liked your point about the professionals working abroad and sending considerable amount of foreign exchange to the country and yet completely ignored by all the governments.

KingSasanka · November 29, 2015

AbeysinghE said:

@Kchemist: Liked your point about the professionals working abroad and sending considerable amount of foreign exchange to the country and yet completely ignored by all the governments.

Do Maids, Drivers, Carpenters, Care-givers, Nurses come under this PROFESSIONALS LIST ?

Just curious only.

Edited November 29, 2015 by KingSasanka

AbeysinghE · November 29, 2015

On 11/29/2015 at 11:36 AM, KingSasanka said:
Do Maids, Drivers, Carpenters, Care-givers, Nurses come under this PROFESSIONALS LIST ?

On 11/29/2015 at 11:36 AM, KingSasanka said:
Just curious only.

Why not machan..they are professional in their profession..I know why you raised that question..Coz in Sri Lanka it's always considered that people who have bachelor degree, MBA, MBBS, CIMA, ACCA, CIM, Civil engineering are professionals.And most importantly keep in mind that name of this thread is Budget- Impact on vehicle prices

Edited November 29, 2015 by AbeysinghE

B2Spirit · November 29, 2015

And as it is custom with Ravi K, here comes the amendment.

The Members of Parliament will get the permits.

This is going to get interesting.

iRage · November 29, 2015

Well..the doctors are getting fired up about permits....I'm just waiting till the engineers at CEB and the Water Resources Board start demanding permits (after all they do keep the country lit up and water flowing)...then maybe the ISPs can start demanding too (heck..without them we won't be able to communicate and be completely cut out from the outside world). Anyone know how we can get the Accountants on board as well ? They do keep the books....without that we wouldn't be able to balance any of our finances...wait...why won't we ALL argue and demand for permits ???

kusumsiri · November 29, 2015

@iRange : If ALL getting the permits equal to no one get the permit. Isn't ? So this budget proposal is ok until Ravi not amending ANYONE to the allowed list.

kchemist · November 29, 2015

On 11/29/2015 at 11:36 AM, KingSasanka said:
Do Maids, Drivers, Carpenters, Care-givers, Nurses come under this PROFESSIONALS LIST ?
Just curious only.

Oh, I feel very happy about the responses I got. After all, I didn't make lot of enemies. To answer your question yes they are all professionals, and they all remit money back to SL. If you read my comment carefully I said all of those foreign expats should get duty free allowances depending on their remittance (i.e. 20% sounds like a good number). So what they do with that allowance is entirely up to them (They can buy TVs, Washing machines, Motor bicycle, three wheeler if they so desire).

kchemist · November 29, 2015

On 11/29/2015 at 3:06 PM, iRage said:
Well..the doctors are getting fired up about permits....I'm just waiting till the engineers at CEB and the Water Resources Board start demanding permits (after all they do keep the country lit up and water flowing)...then maybe the ISPs can start demanding too (heck..without them we won't be able to communicate and be completely cut out from the outside world). Anyone know how we can get the Accountants on board as well ? They do keep the books....without that we wouldn't be able to balance any of our finances...wait...why won't we ALL argue and demand for permits ???

Yes if doctors are getting fired up I see no reason why other professionals couldnt do that. If govt gives permits back to doctors then all other professionals including private sector should protest.

iRage · November 29, 2015

@kusumsiri : yes that was the point

chan5 · November 29, 2015

@kchemist - the reason why other categories didn't fire up was they are not strongly organised as doctors. They have several groups based on politics.sometimes they are not collaborated. On the other hand, GMOA is strong body with almost all membership follows single policy.

KingSasanka · November 29, 2015

How about the guys do sanitation works?

(Permits to bring Gully-bowser next).

iRage said:
Well..the doctors are getting fired up about permits....I'm just waiting till the engineers at CEB and the Water Resources Board start demanding permits (after all they do keep the country lit up and water flowing)...then maybe the ISPs can start demanding too (heck..without them we won't be able to communicate and be completely cut out from the outside world). Anyone know how we can get the Accountants on board as well ? They do keep the books....without that we wouldn't be able to balance any of our finances...wait...why won't we ALL argue and demand for permits ???

kchemist · November 29, 2015

On 11/29/2015 at 4:32 PM, KingSasanka said:
How about the guys do sanitation works?
(Permits to bring Gully-bowser next).

Just a quick question, are you a medical doctor?

kchemist · November 29, 2015

On 11/29/2015 at 4:10 PM, chan5 said:
@kchemist - the reason why other categories didn't fire up was they are not strongly organised as doctors. They have several groups based on politics.sometimes they are not collaborated. On the other hand, GMOA is strong body with almost all membership follows single policy.

Yes I agree with you, GMOA is well organized. Well as a foreign expat myself we dont have such organization. So all we can do is withdraw our NRFC accounts and taking it back to US bank. That's the only influence we can do to the government if they decided to give the permits back. Government asking foreign expats to deposit their hard earned money in SL and at the same time doctors asking for duty-free permits. These two things are mutually exclusive. I have a very strong opinion about this, I myself cannot stomach the fact that single cent of my money is used to give tax breaks to any specialezed official. If they so want cars they need to learn to pay taxes for the full amount.

If govt still wants to give permits (under the influence of GMOA) they should only give one permit for life for every individual who is qualified by their criteria irrespective that the person works in private or govt sector. Under this condition I can at least bear the fact that people get benifit from foreign expats money.

Edited November 29, 2015 by kchemist

chan5 · November 30, 2015

@Kchemist - are you residing in USA or it's just job visa.?

Senaratne · November 30, 2015

We all foreign expats should get together, let’s not remit our hard earing $ to SL at least for 3 months.

Senaratne · November 30, 2015

We all foreign expats should get together, let’s not remit our hard earning $ to SL at least for 3 months.

Senaratne · November 30, 2015

deleted!

Edited November 30, 2015 by Senaratne

KingSasanka · November 30, 2015

No.

(Only a Witch-doctor).

kchemist said:
Just a quick question, are you a medical doctor?

Mazda6 · November 30, 2015

Even now, I've seen hitad ads for permits for sale and business seems to be good. Let's not pretend that hardworking (!) professionals in the public sector have no other option to get to work other than by buying a permit car. They just want their pound of flesh from this budget, just like everybody else.

Anyway, it looks like the permit scheme will be reinstated for all and sundry.

Watchman · November 30, 2015

On 11/29/2015 at 4:10 PM, chan5 said:
@kchemist - the reason why other categories didn't fire up was they are not strongly organised as doctors. They have several groups based on politics.sometimes they are not collaborated. On the other hand, GMOA is strong body with almost all membership follows single policy.

Machan, "having a strong union" does not mean doctors are entitled to the privilege of a permit. And the nobleness the GMOA claims about its profession does not ethically allow them to endanger patients' lives for personal benefits (aka permits).

If the GMOA thinks going on strike is the solution, then they should drop their "noble and hard working profession" crap and realize they become no different from Gamunu and his private bus drivers' gang.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Watchman

KingSasanka · November 30, 2015

Everyone is using his or her BUYING POWER to get what he or she wants.

Together, they become more powerful than other individuals.

Ganging up is a natural thing.

It is still JUNGLE RULE applies here.

kchemist · November 30, 2015

On 11/30/2015 at 4:35 AM, chan5 said:
@Kchemist - are you residing in USA or it's just job visa.?

So far I m on Job visa.

kchemist · November 30, 2015

On 11/30/2015 at 4:41 AM, Senaratne said:
We all foreign expats should get together, let’s not remit our hard earning $ to SL at least for 3 months.

Best solution is withdraw our NRFC accounts and bring them back. Give the reason to the bank as govt is issuing permits. 100 people do that govt will get the word

Edited November 30, 2015 by kchemist