’’Vehicle imports have fallen to a level lower than anticipated.’

Due to the import restrictions imposed within the country, the amount of foreign exchange spent daily on vehicle imports has been significantly reduced to US$ 3.9 million. Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Anil Jayanta, stated in Parliament yesterday (12) that under normal circumstances, the country's daily vehicle import expenditure was recorded as US$ 5.27 million.

However, he revealed that due to the undue fear created in society regarding vehicle imports, there were instances where people previously imported an excessive number of vehicles, causing the daily expenditure to rise to US$ 6.8 million.

The Deputy Minister pointed out that the impact of the war situation in the Middle East region has entered the country's economy in various ways, and stated that a common intervention is essential for the country to face it. Sri Lanka primarily faced a fuel problem amidst this global crisis, and the government hopes that this situation will be quickly alleviated. He also emphasized that if this war situation continues and further escalates, strong attention must be paid to managing its impact within the country.

It takes a short time for changes in foreign exchange rates to stabilize, and this is determined by the demand and supply for the dollar. This impact on the dollar's value also led to an increase in commodity prices in the domestic market, but the government has already taken certain strategic steps to mitigate such short-term crises. The Minister pointed out that vehicles and fuel were among the main items that primarily contributed to the increase in import prices in the country, and also clarified that there is no possibility of restricting fuel imports given the current situation.

For this reason, the government requested the public to control and reduce the import of their personal vehicles to some extent, and a special mechanism was also included for this. In 2025, when the economy was expanding, a large daily expenditure was incurred for vehicle imports, and due to the undue fear created in the country amidst the crisis, people were prompted to import more vehicles, causing it to increase to US$ 6.8 million per day. However, it appears that the government's decisions are currently yielding successful results. Accordingly, during the 8-day period excluding holidays up to June 10th, only US$ 31.72 million has been spent on vehicle imports, with a daily average of US$ 3.9 million. Dr. Anil Jayanta further stated that this is a reduction in vehicle import expenditure to a level even lower than what the government had anticipated.