Vehicle Import Restrictions to be Lifted!

[Gummybr]

Don't know if you saw this, good listen to understand the situation.

 

An idea of things to come, the way he says 1.5b is nothing flashes a lot of red flags for me.

Edited January 7 by Gummybr

[iRage]

  On 1/7/2025 at 3:46 AM, sathyajithj99 said:

Can you please give some examples ?

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The new Corolla (gasoline) and the Corolla Cross. The Gasoline Corolla sedan comes with rear independent suspension but the JDM 1.5 gasoline Corolla comes with torsion beam in the back. Because the suspension is hard and the body is more rigid the torsion beam makes the car a bit more bouyant on uneven road surfaces and even on bends. Only the JDM Hybrid comes with independent rear suspension in the back. The Corolla Cross...in Japan the base model is very very basic. It even comes with steel wheels and optional hubcaps. Because of market positioning the export model Corolla Cross comes better equipped even in the lowest trim.

Similar situation with the Civic. In Japan we only get the hatchback. The export markets get the sedan and the hatchback and has more trim levels offering more customizability.

Then there is the WR-V. The WR-V in Japan is actually a rebadged Honda Elevate made in India. It is a very (typical) entry level Indian crossover that has been dressed up. The Interior is plastic; upholstery materials are... so-so...on the other hand...the WR-V that is there in Vietnam/Thailand, etc..the interior is much nicer, and things like sound deadening have been significantly improved. The thing even comes with (faux) leather seats. It even has a 6-speed manual option, while Japan only gets the CVT (not sure if the Indian Elevate comes with a 6MT). 

So export models are not all that bad now. People are not buying cars in Japan anymore. The new generation is much more conservative with spending money. The old Japanese spent a lot because they wanted the best. Not anymore. 

On other news...there seems to be some buzz about tax increases mentioned by the CB head.

[sathyajithj99]

  On 1/7/2025 at 9:10 AM, iRage said:

The new Corolla (gasoline) and the Corolla Cross. The Gasoline Corolla sedan comes with rear independent suspension but the JDM 1.5 gasoline Corolla comes with torsion beam in the back. Because the suspension is hard and the body is more rigid the torsion beam makes the car a bit more bouyant on uneven road surfaces and even on bends.

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I experienced this in my previous Corolla axio 141 as well. It had torsion beam at the back

[iRage]

  On 1/7/2025 at 11:41 AM, sathyajithj99 said:

I experienced this in my previous Corolla axio 141 as well. It had torsion beam at the back

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Yes...but in the Axio, Premio and Allion the suspension is softer than the new Corolla. So it is a little bit less noticeable. With the new one...imagine that sensation but magnify it by 2x

It is all fine with average driving in city traffic, but put it on bad or curvy roads, and the highway, you do feel the jitteriness in the back.

Edited January 8 by iRage

[kush]

  On 1/8/2025 at 2:21 AM, iRage said:

Yes...but in the Axio, Premio and Allion the suspension is softer than the new Corolla. So it is a little bit less noticeable. With the new one...imagine that sensation but magnify it by 2x

It is all fine with average driving in city traffic, but put it on bad or curvy roads, and the highway, you do feel the jitteriness in the back.

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That may be the case with the gasoline sedan and touring but the sport has double wishbone set up in the back.

I have the GZ with sport seats best seats and suspension setup i have experienced in a Jap at this price. Car is very compliant and planted and my only gripe is low power from the 1.2L and the terrible CVT which takes ages to response. 

Not a big issue for office commute and highway but not a good setup for a spirited driving. A manual would have been much better but opted to CVT as the main requirement was city commute.

It is not as comfortable as a Allion/ Premio and rear seats are not at all spacious, boot is small so Allion/Premio Axio fan boys will not like it.

I find that low speed ride on poorly surfaced roads are bit jittery partly may be due to low profile tires. 

 

[iRage]

  On 1/10/2025 at 8:00 AM, kush said:

That may be the case with the gasoline sedan and touring but the sport has double wishbone set up in the back.

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I think you didn't see some of the previous replies and took it a bit out of context.

The sedan, wagon and hatchback all had double wishbones in the back for the pre-facelift. The facelift sedan and touring got torson beams in the back while the Sports and the Hybrids of all the variants retained the double wishbones in the back.

The 1.2L was actually the least powerful in the line up but it had a nice feel to it and gave a decent amount of torque when the turbo spooled up *the 1.2 had about 185Nm which was the highest). At the time the 1.2 had about 115hp, the 1,8 Hybrid (combined) about 120hp and the 1.8 (gasoline) had about 140hp.
With the facelift...I can't believe I am saying this...the funner variant to drive is the Hybrid (now has 140Hp and tons of torque...around 180 combined). The Sports has a 2.0L gasoline option as well with about 170Hp but doesn't have the peppyness of the 1.2L...feels like a cruiser.

As for the seats...the GZ came with the Toyota "Sport" seat which is the same seat they used in the GR Yaris and GR Corolla high-spec trims (but with a different material/finish). Yes...it is nice and is quite body hugging. My only gripe with the seat is that it is too big for the car (same with the Yaris). When you are in the back it is like  a big wall of black gloom.

It very well could be the wheels. My Touring has 17" low profile stock tires. Have used the lower trim levels with the 16" thick walled tires and those had a much softer ride. I have driven a Sport G with the same 16" tire and can't remember it being a harsh ride. On the other hand the 17" wheels felt a lot more gentler in Japan than it does in SL. So yeah..road quality does not help the cause.

Agreed with the CVT. The eCVT is not much different. They say the eCVT has been improved with the facelift. If this is an improvement I hate to think what it was like before (never driven a prefacelift Hybrid). At least the CVT has an actual first gear so getting off the mark is a bit better.

Back to the topic...

What the car sales are advertising as a possibility for 9.x mil is the gasoline variant (most likely the facelift as the time frame for bringing down a pre-facelift is getting narrower). In which case, it will have the torsion beam suspension in the back. In the Corolla with tighter suspension and tighter body torsion beam is quite jittery compared to the same setup in the Allion/Premio. So the Allion/Premio fanboys are not going to like it (in addition to them not liking the fact that the Corolla feels smaller and gloomier inside than the Allipn/Premio)/

[Hyaenidae]

Excise duty for vehicle imports announced:

https://www.treasury.gov.lk/api/file/6bb410ce-f149-444d-b2c0-515c5e053824

https://www.mediafire.com/file/hhqzc4wnxy4j0jo/G.N+2418-43+dated+10.01.2025+EX.SPL.PRO.pdf/file

Edited January 10 by Hyaenidae

[sathyajithj99]

So this new Nissan Xtrail e-power is basically an EV with a petrol generator to charge the battery instead of plugging to a charger. Will it be taxed under EV vehicle or a hybrid? @iRage

[Gummybr]

  On 1/11/2025 at 1:07 AM, sathyajithj99 said:

So this new Nissan Xtrail e-power is basically an EV with a petrol generator to charge the battery instead of plugging to a charger. Will it be taxed under EV vehicle or a hybrid? @iRage

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It will be classified as a hybrid. I checked on the technicality with customs when I first saw the Note and their classification was hybrid. The reason was there is no charging from external power supply (grid)

[Gummybr]

  On 1/10/2025 at 9:11 AM, Hyaenidae said:

Excise duty for vehicle imports announced:

https://www.treasury.gov.lk/api/file/6bb410ce-f149-444d-b2c0-515c5e053824

https://www.mediafire.com/file/hhqzc4wnxy4j0jo/G.N+2418-43+dated+10.01.2025+EX.SPL.PRO.pdf/file

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So the duty goes up 

Also interestingly they have put a depreciation table which is confusing and also letting people import on their old permits which numbers more than 20,000 which could be a loss of revenue for govt.

[tiv]

I'm not that good with these tax codes and literature but by the looks of the the 660cc kei class lot will be cheap isn't it

 

[Dee Jay]

  On 1/11/2025 at 1:16 AM, Gummybr said:

Also interestingly they have put a depreciation table which is confusing

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And there's no mention of the age limit of the vehicles that can be imported..

  On 1/10/2025 at 9:11 AM, Hyaenidae said:

Excise duty for vehicle imports announced:

https://www.treasury.gov.lk/api/file/6bb410ce-f149-444d-b2c0-515c5e053824

https://www.mediafire.com/file/hhqzc4wnxy4j0jo/G.N+2418-43+dated+10.01.2025+EX.SPL.PRO.pdf/file

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These CC based taxes plus VAT and Luxury Tax it would be then most probably..

Just did some rough calculations myself to see how these would be (I could be wrong) translated to a total CC based tax. Comparatively there's an increase in the total CC tax than the previous import tax regime.

[Gummybr]

  On 1/11/2025 at 4:12 AM, Dee Jay said:

And there's no mention of the age limit of the vehicles that can be imported..

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Max 3 years old for motor cars.

[Gummybr]

  On 1/11/2025 at 4:12 AM, Dee Jay said:

 

Just did some rough calculations myself to see how these would be (I could be wrong) translated to a total CC based tax. Comparatively there's an increase in the total CC tax than the previous import tax regime.

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Well although we never checked the excise duty changed every year after the budget. Compare today's and 2019 budget excise duty and you will see how it has changed.

On top of this you need to pay VAT based on the total of 110% of vehicle + excise duty.

[Hyaenidae]

  On 1/11/2025 at 6:51 AM, Gummybr said:

Well although we never checked the excise duty changed every year after the budget. Compare today's and 2019 budget excise duty and you will see how it has changed.

On top of this you need to pay VAT based on the total of 110% of vehicle + excise duty.

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[Izza]

  On 1/11/2025 at 6:48 AM, Gummybr said:

Max 3 years old for motor cars.

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Where is this mentioned? Since this specifically includes the category 'more than 3 years old' in the relevant tax tables, I thought importing older vehicles will be permitted.. 

Edited January 11 by Izza

[Hyaenidae]

  On 1/11/2025 at 9:45 AM, Izza said:

Where is this mentioned? Since this circular specifically includes the category 'more than 3 years old' in the relevant tax tables, I thought importing older vehicles is going to be permitted.. 

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Apparently that "more than 3 years old" thing was in the gazette before they suspended imports back in 2020 too

Edited January 11 by Hyaenidae

[Gummybr]

  On 1/11/2025 at 9:45 AM, Izza said:

Where is this mentioned? Since this specifically includes the category 'more than 3 years old' in the relevant tax tables, I thought importing older vehicles will be permitted.. 

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Don't be fooled by the vehicle mafia. I think it was the yahapalana govt that came up with max 1 year old vehicles can be bought down, but due to pressure from vehicle importers they changed it to 2 years.

 

The HS classification doesn't state so due to the fact that there was a possibility to bring your own vehicle from abroad, but people stopped bringing them down since the tax was high unlike previously where a depreciation of tax was calculated. 

The two year was mentioned in a budget speech and there should be a gazette to that effect.

[iRage]

  On 1/11/2025 at 9:45 AM, Izza said:

Where is this mentioned? Since this specifically includes the category 'more than 3 years old' in the relevant tax tables, I thought importing older vehicles will be permitted.. 

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That has always been there. In the HS codes and tax declarations for most things there are taxation clauses for cases that would fall out of any conditions. 

Usually the age limit of the car is defined in the actual gazette itself. Not the tax framework. I don't think we have seen the actual gazette opening up the imports. Just the gazette formalizing the new tax structure.

  On 1/11/2025 at 1:14 AM, Gummybr said:

It will be classified as a hybrid.

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Yes it is classified as a Hybrid as sold by Nissan as one as well. Since PHEVs are also in the scene in most countries the definition of an EV is a vehicle solely moved with electric motors and external charging. Our local definitions are a bit old.

 

  On 1/11/2025 at 6:51 AM, Gummybr said:

On top of this you need to pay VAT based on the total of 110% of vehicle + excise duty.

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...isn't luxury tax still there? In which case a Hybrid costing more than 4mil and a gasoline that costs more than 3.5mil will still get LT charged. Depending on what is going to happen to the ruppee that can include quite a lot of cars.

  On 1/11/2025 at 4:12 AM, Dee Jay said:

Just did some rough calculations myself to see how these would be (I could be wrong) t

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When there is a flat rate and a per CC rate, they use whichever is higher (I beleive the gazette formalizing this tax structure also states it). So for anything up to about 800cc (i.e. a kei car) the excess tax will be 1,992,000 (because till about 813cc 2450xCC amount will be lesser than 1.9mil) and for something like a 1L Yaris it will be 2,450*997cc.

  On 1/11/2025 at 4:12 AM, Dee Jay said:

And there's no mention of the age limit of the vehicles that can be imported

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3 years. Age limits and other conditions are defined by customs and the gazette that ensues specifically for importing vehicles. 

  On 1/11/2025 at 1:16 AM, Gummybr said:

Also interestingly they have put a depreciation table which is confusing

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So...when we were importing our car we didn't have a "current" purchase invoice showing the value of the car. Nor did we have any LCs, etc.. (obviously). What we had was the invice for a brand-new purchase of the car from 1.5 years ago. They took that, and depriciated it by 15%. Compared it with the value we gave and took the higher value (we, declared the current Japan market value as 2.4mil yen...

what the customs here didn't take into account was that the 3.207mil you see included the registration cost of about 213,000yen and interest payment to Toyota Financial for a 5 year old loan...which we closed out in 1 year and the interest payment was much lower as well. So the brand new value of just the car was only about 2.8mil yen.

So I suppose a depreciation table is used for cases like this ? Also, I sought of figured they would be using a depreciation table when all these duty-free cars of expats/diplomatic agencies/etc...already in the country gets transferred to anyone without duty-free privileges. But yes ! That table is as confusing as confusing can be,

Edited January 12 by iRage

[iRage]

  On 1/11/2025 at 1:07 AM, sathyajithj99 said:

Will it be taxed under EV vehicle or a hybrid?

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Hybrid. It is sold by Nissan as a Hybrid

[Gummybr]

  On 1/12/2025 at 7:11 AM, iRage said:

 

...isn't luxury tax still there? In which case a Hybrid costing more than 4mil and a gasoline that costs more than 3.5mil will still get LT charged. Depending on what is going to happen to the ruppee that can include quite a lot of cars.

 

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Yes it's still there but majority are looking to bypass the luxury tax and bring down 10 year old vehicles 😁 so I didn't want to say anything there.

 

The depreciation table will be used for luxury tax calculation as well as for the diplomatic cars and the likes bought on duty free basis when they are sold in the local market for luxury tax calculation.

 

The below is an I told you so scenario with our local dealers - https://www.dailymirror.lk/top-story/Vehicle-taxes-may-rise-up-to-600-percent-in-some-cases-by-400-500-percent-in-others-Importers/155-300008

 

They have already hoarded the used seçond hand cars and now want to make a killing.

[Hyaenidae]

  On 1/13/2025 at 8:12 AM, Gummybr said:

Yes it's still there but majority are looking to bypass the luxury tax and bring down 10 year old vehicles 😁 so I didn't want to say anything there.

 

The depreciation table will be used for luxury tax calculation as well as for the diplomatic cars and the likes bought on duty free basis when they are sold in the local market for luxury tax calculation.

 

The below is an I told you so scenario with our local dealers - https://www.dailymirror.lk/top-story/Vehicle-taxes-may-rise-up-to-600-percent-in-some-cases-by-400-500-percent-in-others-Importers/155-300008

 

They have already hoarded the used seçond hand cars and now want to make a killing.

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How's the luxury tax calculated? Any official literature on this?

[iRage]

  On 1/13/2025 at 8:12 AM, Gummybr said:

Yes it's still there but majority are looking to bypass the luxury tax and bring down 10 year old vehicles 😁 so I didn't want to say anything there.

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So my hunch was right...the prices they quoted was for the bottom of the barrel 3 year old cars  If the age restriction was lifted or extended to 7 or something..they can buy older bottom of the barrel cars and make an even larger profit. 
also....everyone seems excited about the "MORE THAN 3 YEARS OLD" categories in the HS Code tax rate declaration. Seems like they never knew that in the tax rate declaration, that was always there. The car sales guys are also staying so quiet about it because I feel they want to stir up the pot and then go to the government and say "look the people are asking for this". Actually, if you look at it..and what seems to be missed is...what we got on the 10th of January was the gazette approving the new tax rates. We still have not seen the gazette approving the import of personal vehicles (the previous one if you look at it carefully was for public transportation vehicles).

  On 1/13/2025 at 8:12 AM, Gummybr said:

They have already hoarded the used seçond hand cars and now want to make a killing.

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IKR ? Disgusting. Stir up the market with false claims of vehicle prices dropping down significantly. Get people to panic sell their cars for cheap. Now, claiming that vehicle costs will be 300% higher than before.

I have been criticized for saying this...but sorry...we as a country are simply not educated. Not as a collective group. If we were actually educated...how can our masses fall for this BS every single time ? Reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills do not constitute education.

Now...all this talk of vehicle imports...I have not heard any single plan from anyone about how they are going to safeguard the forex reserves or not tank the rupee (c'mon..all these people running ot buy cars is going to drive up the demand for USD...and there isn't anything that shows our exports are actually going to be improved).

As always we seem to be doing things in reverse. We are all trying to come up with ways to bring down cars for cheap so that it fits our low income/budget and wealth levels. No one seems to be yelling and screaming about ways to increase our level of wealth so we can afford to buy a proper decent car at whatever the actual market value is.

[sathyajithj99]

  On 1/13/2025 at 8:30 AM, Hyaenidae said:

 

How's the luxury tax calculated? Any official literature on this?

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The gassette issued on 10th was all about how vehicles are taxed according to engine capacity. It seems there are 3 more taxes. It will take another 3-4 weeks to decide how these taxes will be implemented. (Hopefully before the 1st of Feb)

Also what this guy says make some sense at this point

 

 

Edited January 13 by sathyajithj99

[Gummybr]

  On 1/13/2025 at 9:00 AM, iRage said:

So my hunch was right...the prices they quoted was for the bottom of the barrel 3 year old cars  If the age restriction was lifted or extended to 7 or something..

 

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Very true.

  On 1/13/2025 at 9:00 AM, iRage said:

 

I have been criticized for saying this...but sorry...we as a country are simply not educated. Not as a collective group. If we were actually educated...how can our masses fall for this BS every single time ? Reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills do not constitute education.

Now...all this talk of vehicle imports...I have not heard any single plan from anyone about how they are going to safeguard the forex reserves or not tank the rupee (c'mon..all these people running ot buy cars is going to drive up the demand for USD...and there isn't anything that shows our exports are actually going to be improved).

 

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Problem we have is no one is listening to the people who know. I blame the media for not reporting facts, I blame them for becoming a mouthpiece for certain groups only. Media can play a decisive role in changing public misconceptions. Media has to be responsible for what they publish.

Another reason is because of the L board people (I mean the vehicle importers) who are acting like newbies for their own good. If you had been in the industry you know what taxes are to be paid and how many times it changed in the recent years. They should know that the excise duty on vehicles is the inclusion of all the other duties except for VAT. This came about to simplify the system.

Thing is on the forex, it's a fine balancing act, they have to get their act together (govt) if not it's going to be a disaster. This is where the govt should show their education and experience to come out with a proper plan.

I have always said that we as a country doesn't know how to bring in more forex, they look at the easy ways only. There is no proper help given for tourism, exports to push them for better revenue and to bring the money rather than park it elsewhere. We have EPZ's but how many companies are still functioning? Yes it takes time to build trust in foreigners to come and invest, but things should be made simple for them to do business whilst the 'clean Sri Lanka' concept should push for more cleaning up of the govt closet's and coming clean from our old 'you can do anything if you give a commission' mentality. I hope and pray that this govt does it properly before they are chased out, if not we have no future of becoming a corruption free country.