Sri Lanka President opens SKD vehicle assembly plant

President Ranil Wickremesinghe opened an assembly plant in Sri Lanka’s Kuliyapitiya area, which will start by putting together a 15-seater passenger van.

The plant will assemble semi-knocked down vehicles imported from abroad, he said.

Western Automobile Assembly Private Limited, promoted by Sri Lanka’s Senok group.

“We approved the establishment of this factory in 2015, but it faced significant opposition and protests. Investigations were even conducted in Parliament,” he was quoted as saying at the opening ceremony Tuesday.

“The project, which was scheduled to launch in 2019, was delayed due to the impacts of COVID-19 and the economic crisis.

After assuming the presidency, I made the decision to restart all these stalled projects. Today, we have finally commenced operations at the Western Automobile Company.

“This factory has the capacity to produce 50,000 vehicles annually, which will strengthen our export sector.”

Domestic vehicle assembly operations have drawn controvery.

It is not clear how locally sold vehicles will be taxed or whether it will lead to revenue losses through tax arbitrage. 

Source:Economy Next