The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to import new rechargeable electric vehicles subject to exemption of Customs tariff, to an amount not exceeding the value of USD 30,000 including insurance and shipping charges, for certain investment projects under BOI programmes.

The government said it has been decided to import new rechargeable electric vehicles without the relevant customs tariffs, in a bid to attract investments.

The proposal, furnished by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies, was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers at their meeting held on Monday (11 Sep.).

Accordingly, the Cabinet approved the import of electric vehicles subject to an exemption of custom tariffs to an amount not exceeding USD 30,000.

Insurance and shipping charges related to projects that fulfill the required criteria will also be included in the said exemption, which was approved in a bid to attract various investments under the programmes “Retaining and extending investors for re – investment of existing board of investment approved companies” and “The 100 service companies programme that are board of investment’s information technology / and companies empowered by information technology”.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet approved a second proposal related to the matter, also proposed by the Head of State, pertaining to the local assembly of electric vehicles.

As such, it was approved to impose a zero (0%) customs tariff on the CIF value when importing electric vehicles, electric two - wheelers with a power grade up to 500 kW and modern partially assembled Semi – Knocked – Down (SKD) sets with an engine capacity up to 3000 CC for assembling plug – in hybrid electric vehicles for the investors that engage them for electric vehicles and plug – in hybrid electric vehicles for a minimum investment of USD 50 million by companies already approved by the Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI) or new companies entering into agreements.

The relevant proposal was approved by the Cabinet aiming to encourage the manufacturing of electric vehicles locally.