The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Hon. Bimal Rathnayake provided answers on vehicle registration history, noting registrations and driving licences began in 1928 under the Inspector General of Police pursuant to Act No. 14 of 1916, while some historical information was unavailable. He reported that Sri Lanka’s vehicle population stood at 8,816,613 as at 31 December 2025, with motorcycles forming the largest category. He stated that vehicle emissions testing is a regulatory process rather than a government revenue source, with 10 per cent of contractors’ income collected as an Emission Levy; in 2025, Rs. 389 million was paid to the Emission Levy Fund and Rs. 902 million in VAT and Social Security Contribution Levy to the Treasury.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the answers are as follows:
¶ 02 (a) (i) 1928. (ii) By the Inspector General of Police under Act No. 14 of 1916, vehicle registrations and driving licences commenced. (iii) 1902. (iv) Information cannot be retrieved.
¶ 03 (b) (i) Vehicle population as at 31.12.2025: - Motor cars: 973,376 - Motor tricycles: 1,201,842 - Motorcycles: 5,177,085 - Buses: 116,195 - Dual-purpose vehicles: 458,632 - Motor lorries: 353,214 - Prime movers: 7,921 - Lorry trailers: 10,400 - Special-purpose vehicles: 15,546 - Ambulances: 3,687 - Hearses: 493 - Land vehicles: 407,306 - Non-agricultural tractors: 958 - Trailers and bowsers: 87,464 - Quadricycles: 2,444 - Motor homes: 6 - Other special-purpose vehicles: 44 Total: 8,816,613
¶ 04 (ii) The emissions testing process is not a revenue-generating source for the Government. It is a regulatory process to meet legal requirements and protect the right to clean air. The Government provides no financial contribution to the process. From the income generated, 10% of the contractor’s revenue is collected as an Emission Levy into a fund.
¶ 05 (iii) In 2025, Cleanco Lanka Ltd. remitted Rs. 179 million and Laughs Eco Sri Ltd. Rs. 210 million to the Emission Levy Fund, totaling Rs. 389 million. Additionally, in 2025 these companies remitted Rs. 792 million as VAT and Rs. 110 million as Social Security Contribution Levy to the Treasury, totaling Rs. 902 million.
¶ 06 (c) Not applicable.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 19 March 2026 ·No. 23381 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/30116
Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 19 March 2026. No. 23381. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/30116