No TIN, No Revenue Licence From Nov 1 — Tax Net or Needless Hassle?

From November 1, every vehicle owner needs a TIN certificate in hand just to get or renew a revenue licence. If you hold the original Certificate of Registration, it's your TIN; if the vehicle was transferred, it's whoever is named on the CMT 52 form. This comes from this year's Inland Revenue Amendment Act, and the same requirement now covers banking, land registration and business registration too — so it's clearly about widening the tax net, not just a vehicle rule. A few groups are exempt: under-18s, short-stay foreigners, diplomats, and anyone whose TIN application was rejected. One side: everyone who owns an asset like a car should already be in the tax system, and a revenue licence counter is as good a checkpoint as any to catch people who've dodged registration for years. The other side: this turns a five-minute errand into a bureaucratic headache for retirees, housewives and anyone who's never had taxable income but still owns a vehicle, and most DMT counters aren't set up to sort out TIN issues on the spot. Did you need a TIN to renew this month — smooth, or did they turn you away? මෙවර බලපත්‍රය අලුත් කරන්න TIN එකක් ඕන වුණාද? ලේසි වුණාද, අමාරු වුණාද?