Duty-Free Car Permits for Doctors, Engineers Frozen Again in Budget 2027 — Fair?

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake presents Budget 2027 to Parliament on November 12, and the government has already confirmed the freeze on issuing duty-free vehicle import permits to public servants — doctors, university professors, state engineers, and directors of state corporations — will continue through next year too. Since 2020, over 25,000 of these permits have been issued, letting qualifying professionals import a car without paying the duty the rest of us pay in full. One side: these permits were effectively part of the deal that kept doctors and engineers from leaving for the Gulf or further abroad, and freezing them without a real pay rise just speeds up the brain drain. The other side: a tax break tied to your job title, worth millions on a single vehicle, while everyone else pays full duty, is exactly the "permit culture" the President himself promised to end when he took office — it should be scrapped for good, not just left frozen and waiting to return. Where do you land — keep the freeze, kill the scheme entirely, or bring it back properly? If you've ever held one of these permits, what did it actually save you? ඔබ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන්ගේ බදු රහිත වාහන බලපත්‍ර මුළුමනින්ම අහෝසි කළ යුතුද, නැත්නම් දිගටම දුන යුතුද?