CMTA clarifies on Audi duty fraud

The Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA) yesterday confirmed that the sole authorised dealer for Audi in Sri Lanka, Drive One (Pvt.) Ltd, was not in any way involved in the alleged duty fraud that has cost the government a large sum of money.

The CMTA, in an earlier statement issued to the media, urged the authorities to take firm actions against an alleged Rs.160 million import duty fraud committed in importing 13 Audi A5 motor vehicles by a particular vehicle importer.

“The CMTA wishes to clarify that Drive One (Pvt.) Ltd, the sole authorised dealer for Audi in Sri Lanka, was not the importer of the 13 units of mis-declared Audi A5 cars. The importation was done by certain parallel importers, 

who had mis-declared the engine capacity to gain a tax advantage, incurring a massive loss to the country,” the association said in a fresh statement, yesterday. 

The CMTA said these particular parallel importers have imported 13 units of Audi A5 cars, which were found to be 2,000 CC petrol engine cars but declared as 1,400 CC. 

“This mis-declaration results in an approximate duty loss to the government of Rs.160,000,000 and the loss of revenue per vehicle is approximately Rs.12,300,000.

As the authorised dealer, Drive One (Pvt.) Ltd has confirmed that Sri Lanka Customs had visited its office to verify the actual cubic capacity (CC) of the said A5 cars and Drive One had confirmed that they are 2000cc and not 1400cc as declared, by showing the Audi online computer system and followed by a written confirmation,” the statement said.

The CMTA warns the public to be wary of purchasing the vehicles that are under investigation as they could be seized by Sri Lanka Customs at any time.