Sri Lanka Vehicle Import Eligibility Checker

Sri Lanka reopened personal vehicle imports on February 1, 2025after a multi-year restriction. Eligibility is now a yes/no decision built from three independent rules in the Imports and Exports (Control) Regulations No. 01 of 2025 (Gazette Extraordinary No. 2421/04) and the Sri Lanka Customs Motor Vehicle Unit. This tool runs all three and tells you the verdict; it does not estimate duty — that is a separate calculation.

1. Vehicle age, the Customs way. Age is the period between the date of manufacture and the date of the Bill of Lading (or Airway Bill) — not the first-registration date. By Regulation 14.1 the date of manufacture is taken as the 15th of the manufacture month; if only the year is documented, the 15th of January of that year is used. The tool computes whole months as (BL year − mfg year) × 12 + (BL month − mfg month).
2. Per-category age cap.The cap depends on HS Chapter 87 classification: motor cars, SUVs and motorcycles “not more than three years old” (36 months); single and double cab pickups “not more than four years old” (48 months); lorries/trucks and buses “not more than five years old” (60 months). A passenger van seating up to 9 sits with cars under HS 8703 (3 years); a 10-plus-seater microbus is a bus (HS 8702, 5 years). Brand-new vehicles skip the age test entirely. Because the rule reads “not more than”, an age of exactly the cap still passes — 36 months is fine for a car, 37 months is not.
3. Import Control Licence (ICL). Used vehicles need an ICL from the Department of Imports and Exports Control, applied for at imexport.gov.lk before shipment. Brand-new units cleared through a registered importer generally do not.
4. Individual quota. A non-registered individual — including a returning resident importing under personal entitlement — may import only one vehicle every 12 months. The window runs from the Bill of Lading date of the previous import, so the tool reports the exact month you become eligible again. Registered importers and diplomatic imports are outside this quota.

The verdict is Eligible when every rule passes with no extra step, Conditional when it passes but needs an ICL or a Customs confirmation, and Not eligible when a rule fails — with the specific failing rule named. The age computation is internally cross-checked against a calendar-walk method, so an arithmetic regression would surface immediately. Confirm the final position with Sri Lanka Customs before you ship, as rates and conditions change by gazette.

• Imports and Exports (Control) Regulations No. 01 of 2025 — Gazette Extraordinary No. 2421/04 (English)
• Sri Lanka Customs — Motor Vehicle Unit (age computation, HS Chapter 87)
• Department of Imports and Exports Control — Used Motor Vehicle import policy (ICL)
• Customs Notification — Gazette Extraordinary No. 2421/43 (31.01.2025)

The per-category age caps and the manufacture-to-Bill-of-Lading age method were last cross-checked against these sources on 2026-06-27. This page is reviewed whenever a new vehicle-import gazette is issued. It is an eligibility guide, not a customs ruling — Sri Lanka Customs makes the final determination on any import.