COLOMBO: Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s move to slash duty has encouraged the import of smaller cars which have for the first time out numbered three wheelers by three to one.
Samaraweera’s maiden budget in November rationalised the import tax structure, reducing customs duties on smaller cars and electrically powered vehicles. There was no surge of electric cars despite a one million rupee duty reduction in the smaller electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf, but smaller hybrid cars have flooded the market.
Official figures collated by JB Securities showed that 5,306 cars were registered in January, up from 3,394 in the previous month and more than a one third jump compared to January 2017.
Within the car category, vehicles with an engine capacity of less than 1,000 cubic centimetres accounted for about 85 percent of the total, or 4,510 cars compared to 1,543 three wheelers registered in January.
The statistics show that small cars, especially the 660-cc Suzuki Wagon R and its variants are dominating the new registrations. For every three wheeler which got on the roads in January, three small cars joined the traffic.
This is the first time that smaller cars have overtaken three wheelers by such a high margin although last year there were several months during which slightly more cars got on the streets compared to tuk-tuks.
The price of higher-end Suzuki Hustler and Spacia models dropped by nearly a million rupees while more popular Wagon R was also substantially cheaper after the budget.
However, the government’s proposal to make electric cars more popular does not seem to have caught on. Sixteen electric cars were registered in January, up from the six in December but down from the 29 a year earlier.
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