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Duty Concessions On Imports - Question


Duncan

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Hi everyone

Heard from a friend that we are allowed to bring in a vehicle to SL once every 5 years at a duty rate of only 15% provided we have owned the vehicle for a minimum of two years in the overseas country.

Is this true?

If it is true, are we allowed to resell it soon after the import or do we have to keep it for personal use only?

Any other conditions attached to this?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

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Not sure if they have changed it (last time I checked was about 8 months ago when my mom took over her car) but the policy was that you could bring down the car you used in a foreign country during your employment abroad. Which can be up to 5 years old if you have owned it for between 1-2(or is it 3 years) or up to 10 years old if you have owned it for more than that. The standard duties apply, the only benefit "if there is one" is that because you can bring down an older car (rather than a max of 2 years) depreciation was greater thus the value of the car is lesser thus amount paid as duty was lower.

the car could not be transferred from the importer's name for 5 years (EDIT : I honestly cant remember if this is 5 or 3...)

I said "if there is a benefit" because; with all the permit cars around that can now be transferred and the reduced depreciation by customs any "overall" savings is quite small compared to what it used to be before the changes to the above. It is especially so if you are looking at bringing down a car that is typically brought down under govt. permits. In fact in such a case the only savings <if you can consider it as such> would be that you used the car abroad so that kind of helps to cover up the initial purchase cost of the car. Also, you would know the history of the car. However, if your plan is to bring down something "not so typical" for the govt.permit I guess this might be somewhat different.

Conditions at the time was you had to be a citizen of Sri Lanka and had to show evidence that you are giving up your employment abroad and coming back home. Also you had to show that you had remitted a minimum of 50,000 USD <used to be that> throughout your employment period abroad at least 6 months prior to your return. Also the car you are bringing down had to be less than or equal to a certain percentage of the funds you had sent to SL over the years. You will have to get a letter from the nearest SL embassy and also get your work permits, contracts etc certified/verified. Once these things were in order everything was pretty straight forward <my mom got her permit the next day after submitting all the papers>.

Last time I checked the website had only the basic information, so it might be best to just call them directly or have someone drop in and talk to them.

Edited by iRage
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Not sure if they have changed it (last time I checked was about 8 months ago when my mom took over her car) but the policy was that you could bring down the car you used in a foreign country during your employment abroad. Which can be up to 5 years old if you have owned it for between 1-2(or is it 3 years) or up to 10 years old if you have owned it for more than that. The standard duties apply, the only benefit "if there is one" is that because you can bring down an older car (rather than a max of 2 years) depreciation was greater thus the value of the car is lesser thus amount paid as duty was lower.

the car could not be transferred from the importer's name for 5 years (EDIT : I honestly cant remember if this is 5 or 3...)

I said "if there is a benefit" because; with all the permit cars around that can now be transferred and the reduced depreciation by customs any "overall" savings is quite small compared to what it used to be before the changes to the above. It is especially so if you are looking at bringing down a car that is typically brought down under govt. permits. In fact in such a case the only savings <if you can consider it as such> would be that you used the car abroad so that kind of helps to cover up the initial purchase cost of the car. Also, you would know the history of the car. However, if your plan is to bring down something "not so typical" for the govt.permit I guess this might be somewhat different.

Conditions at the time was you had to be a citizen of Sri Lanka and had to show evidence that you are giving up your employment abroad and coming back home. Also you had to show that you had remitted a minimum of 50,000 USD <used to be that> throughout your employment period abroad at least 6 months prior to your return. Also the car you are bringing down had to be less than or equal to a certain percentage of the funds you had sent to SL over the years. You will have to get a letter from the nearest SL embassy and also get your work permits, contracts etc certified/verified. Once these things were in order everything was pretty straight forward <my mom got her permit the next day after submitting all the papers>.

Last time I checked the website had only the basic information, so it might be best to just call them directly or have someone drop in and talk to them.

Thanks so much.

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IRage covered almost everything. To clear the few doubts. Car up to 5 years old needs to be in your name for at least a year. A car 5 to 10 years old, needs to be in your name for at least 3 years. I think you need to keep it with you for 5 years. Along with the documents, you need an inspection report of the car along with photos from all sides. I went to import and export control as well as customs about this in 2012. Looks like it has stayed the same until IRage's more recent visit. I think I still have the more detailed instructions with me (some aspects could be out of date though) if you want to read through, drop me a pm with your email addy and I'll send them through.

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IRage covered almost everything. To clear the few doubts. Car up to 5 years old needs to be in your name for at least a year. A car 5 to 10 years old, needs to be in your name for at least 3 years. I think you need to keep it with you for 5 years. Along with the documents, you need an inspection report of the car along with photos from all sides. I went to import and export control as well as customs about this in 2012. Looks like it has stayed the same until IRage's more recent visit. I think I still have the more detailed instructions with me (some aspects could be out of date though) if you want to read through, drop me a pm with your email addy and I'll send them through.

Hi

Thanks so much for the reply.

I have a 2012 Nissan Patrol (30,000km) which I bought new and was playing around with the idea of sending it to SL. But since my first posting here I have decided not to go ahead with the idea.

​Thinking of keeping it and once the warranty runs out do it up for camping and keep it for a while. My last Patrol lasted well over 20 years and 600,000km. So guess the current one will hopefully go that far too.

Angel of reason tells me to keep this and not stick money into another vehicle :)

.....may be a Harley though :D

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