Ban vehicle imports as part of austerity

The country is at crossroads with the US Dollar dancing to Donald Trump’s tune…and very soon at the pace it is moving, the dollar will hit Rs. 180 or above. It is time that the country should move on to an austerity gear and all citizens irrespective of their political affiliations should sacrifice certain comforts and goodies to bring some stability to our country which is beyond the political manipulations.

During the early ‘60s, the country was going through a crisis over foreign reserves and the then Government took stringent decisions to curb the situation by imposing restrictions on imports. Those who could remember that time will recall how at a time when there were no television news and mobiles and people were solely dependent on radio news and newspapers for current news, one morning when we opened the newspapers the headlines carried the news:  ‘Importation of all vehicles banned’; just like that, and for almost 10 years no vehicles of any type including lorries, vans, buses and tractors were allowed to be imported. 

This would have saved a huge amount of foreign exchange for the country which was a major issue at the time. There were so many car importers at the time who humbly accepted the Government stand for the sake of the country, and no one died due to a vehicle not been available to take him or her to hospital, nobody sacrificed a family wedding or an outing for want of a vehicle. The vehicles that were there were carefully maintained and ran without any problems. Today the streets are jammed with vehicles and I feel that the number of vehicles on the road is more than sufficient for our country.

Taking the present economic situation that we suffer, due to the unmanageable exchange rate shared by most of the Asian countries, it is time that the Government took strong decisions in the interest of the country to save the drain on our foreign exchange by curtailing the non-essential imports, and vehicle imports will rank number one in the list. Let every citizen stand by such moves for the sake of austerity to regularise the crisis situation. For a start the Government should impose a total ban on importation of motor cars, vans and double cabs initially for a period of two years and review the situation thereafter.

Sariputhra

Colombo 05