Sunday December 28, 2025 8:15 am
Sunday December 28, 2025 8:15 am
ECONOMYNEXT – Premium vehicle, costing up to 300 million rupees including a Bentley, Ferrari and Mercedese Maybachs have registered in Sri Lanka according to an analysis of registry data by JB Securities, a Colombo-based brokerage.
In November 2025, a pre-owned Bentley Continental GT and a pre-owned Ferrari 296 GTB and one brand Mercedes-Maybach GLS SUV and one Maybach S580 sedan.
“All these vehicles are in the LKR 200-300 mn range,” J B Securities said in a note to clients.
“Thanks are due to these buyers, whose purchases have contributed substantially to the Treasury—around two-thirds of the street value of these vehicles accrues to the government in the form of taxes.”
So far in 2025, 5 used Bentley, one used Rolls-Royce, 10 used Porsche, 2 used Ferari, 2 Lamborghini , 6 brand new Porches vehicles have been registered, according to J B Securities data.
Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of vehicle taxes in the world. Sri Lanka has a large public sector, bloated by unemployed graduates as well as a legacy military from a civil war, which require that people pay high levels of taxes.
Vehicle imports were banned in 2020 as rates were cut with inflationary open market operations to target an econometric output gap.
Sri Lanka has a history of raising taxes after the central bank triggers currency crises by suppressing rates with liquidity injections, which started in 1952.
After the end of the civil war, under so-called revenue based fiscal consolidation, cost cutting (spending-based consolidation) was abandoned and money printing was encouraged to target an econometric output gap, triggering sovereign default in under a decade.
However under a public finance law, a ceiling on primary spending has been placed at 13 percent of GDP which can keep spendthrift macro-economists who believe government spending can boost growth, in check.
(Colombo/Dec29/2025)
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