Ten thousand vehicles were built by assembling imported parts are running on Sri Lanka roads Bribery or Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIBOC) revealed yesterday. Pointing the facts at the Colombo Chief magistrate the Commission requested a court order to take a copy of the system software of the Department of Motor Traffic, to investigate the scam further. Accordingly, Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage ordered to hand over a copy of the software to the court.
The CIBOC has received information that over 10,000 assembled vehicles over 15 years have been registered fraudulently, and running. It is said that there are thousands of luxury vehicles among them. The investigation officials have pointed out that this scam has caused a loss of hundreds of crores of rupees to the government. Colombo Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage yesterday (17) ordered the Commissioner General of the department to submit a copy to the court immediately.
These luxury vehicles are manufactured using such imported vehicle parts, mainly imported from Japan.
The officials of the said Bribery Commission also informed the court that it was revealed that this fraudulent incident had caused more loss than the loss caused by the bond fraud.
After conducting relevant investigations, the magistrate further ordered the commission’s investigating officers to arrest any person involved in this racket regardless of rank and bring them to court.
On several occasions investigation units of Sri Lanka Customs, Police could nab such fake vehicles and persons who are involved in those rackets but this has continued over the years. According to the industry Kurunegala, North Westerrn of Sri Lanka has become a hub of those vehicle scams. There are several individual importers of motor spare parts, who are bringing parts from Japan used to pack dissembled vehicle parts in containers evading paying taxes.
They assemble those parts restore vehicles and prepare fake documents to register these vehicles. It is alleged that some officials of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles have also been involved in the racket for a long time. Further investigations are underway
