No New Car Under Rs 50 Lakh — So Who Did the Import Reopening Actually Help?

Since restrictions eased, Sri Lanka has brought in well over 800,000 vehicles, and the Treasury is quietly thrilled, vehicle-related taxes are now a major chunk of the budget surplus. But a market review this month flags the thing nobody budgeted for: there is reportedly no brand-new vehicle left on sale under Rs 5 million, and daily port clearances have already slipped as buyers struggle to clear tighter loan rules. One side says this was always coming, four years of pent-up demand plus a weak rupee were going to push prices up regardless, and reconditioned Japanese imports remain the real escape hatch for ordinary buyers. The other side says the reopening was sold as relief, and if the only people driving new cars off a showroom floor are the same buyers who could afford them during the ban, nothing really changed except who collects the tax. Did you manage to buy new this year, or did the numbers push you into the used or reconditioned market? What did you actually pay, and for what car? අලුත් කාරයක් මිලදී ගන්න පුළුවන් උනාද, නැත්නම් මිල නිසා පාවිච්චි කරපු එකකට හැරුණාද?