Sri Lanka Vehicle Import Tax Calculator (CIF → Landed Cost)

The Sri Lankan landed cost of an imported motor vehicle is a stacked build-up, not a single percentage. Each levy is applied on a base that already includes the levies above it — which is why the headline tax-to-CIF ratio for a modern car routinely ends up between 150% and 230% of the invoice price. The calculator above follows the published Sri Lanka Customs order exactly:

1. CIF (LKR) = CIF (USD) × exchange rate on the bill-of-entry date. CIF is the invoice price plus insurance plus freight to Colombo Port — what Customs values the vehicle at, before any duty is added.
2. Customs Import Duty (CD) = 20% × CIF. The flat HS 8703 rate is published in the Sri Lanka Customs National Imports Tariff Guide and has held at 20% across the recent gazettes for motor cars and small vans.
3. Excise (Special Provisions) Duty (ED)= per-cc rate × engine cc (or per-kW rate × motor kW for BEVs), multiplied by an age depreciation factor. The per-unit rate comes from the latest Excise Notice Order under Act No. 13 of 1989, banded by engine capacity or motor power, with separate (lower) tables for petrol- and diesel-hybrid vehicles. Used vehicles get a depreciation allowance against the excise base — 0.85 for ≤ 3 yrs, 0.70 for > 3 yrs.
4. PAL = 10% × (CIF + CD). The Ports and Airports Development Levy (PAL Act No. 18 of 2011) applies to the CIF + CD aggregate.
5. SSCL = 2.5% × (CIF + CD + ED + PAL). The Social Security Contribution Levy (Act No. 25 of 2022) compounds on the running total at that point in the stack.
6. VAT = 18% × (CIF + CD + ED + PAL + SSCL). VAT (Act No. 14 of 2002, current rate set by the 2024 Budget) is the last levy and the largest after Excise.
7. Total landed cost = CIF + CD + ED + PAL + SSCL + VAT. The calculator above shows each line, the basis of each line, and the tax-to-CIF ratio so you can sanity-check the headline.

As an internal sanity check the calculator also runs the same total through a closed-form identity — Total = 1.18 × 1.025 × (1.10 × (CIF + CD) + ED) — and surfaces a warning if the two paths disagree. The rate tables themselves live in a single typed module so updating an excise gazette is a one-file change. The identity is useful for back-of-envelope checks too: once you know CIF, CD and ED, the remaining three levies collapse into a single 1.2095 multiplier on the PAL-inclusive subtotal, so you can verify any quote without redoing the whole stack.

Why excise dominates.For anything above a small 1.0-litre hatchback, the Excise (Special Provisions) Duty is the largest single line — usually more than CD, PAL, SSCL and VAT combined. That is because excise is a flat per-cc (or per-kW) charge that ignores the CIF entirely: a cheap, high-displacement engine can carry a heavier excise bill than an expensive, small-displacement one. Two effects fall out of this. First, engine downsizing pays off sharply — moving from a 1,600 cc to a 1,490 cc petrol engine can drop the per-cc rate one whole band. Second, the band boundaries are cliffs, not ramps: the schedule charges the band rate on everycc, so a single cc over a boundary re-prices the entire engine, not just the extra cc. The worked examples below show a 1,000 vs 1,001 cc pair where one cc adds roughly Rs 1.5 million.

Hybrids and EVs.Petrol- and diesel-hybrid vehicles use a separate, lower per-cc table — by policy intent, to nudge the local fleet toward lower emissions — so a 1,500 cc petrol-hybrid pays materially less excise than the same-size petrol-only car. Battery EVs leave the cc system altogether and are excised on motor power in kW, which is why the calculator swaps the engine-capacity field for a kW field when you pick "Electric (BEV)". Running a petrol car? Pair this estimate with the Sri Lanka fuel cost calculator to compare lifetime running costs before you commit to a displacement band.

Age depreciation — excise only. Used vehicles claim a depreciation allowance against the excise base: 0.85 for cars registered abroad ≤ 3 years and 0.70 for those > 3 years. This is the single biggest lever an importer controls after engine size — on a large engine it can shave a million rupees or more. Note the allowance touches excise only; CD, PAL, SSCL and VAT are always assessed on the un-depreciated CIF, so an older car does not get cheaper across the board, just on the excise line. The calculator's brand-new-versus-used comparison panel makes the gap explicit for your exact specification.

Important caveat. The per-cc / per-kW excise rates shown are the most recently circulated Excise Notice Order pattern. Sri Lankan excise rates change by gazette and can move mid-year — and Customs may also re-value your CIF at the wharf. Treat the headline here as a budgeting estimate, build in a 5–10% buffer, and verify the live rate against the gazette in force on your bill-of-entry date before committing to an import.

What this number does not include. The landed cost ends at the wharf. Before the vehicle is road-legal you still pay the Department of Motor Traffic registration and number-plate fees, plus an annual vehicle revenue licence and insurance. If you are financing the purchase, feed the landed cost into the loan EMI calculator to size the monthly instalment, and the income tax calculator if you are budgeting the import against take-home pay.

• Sri Lanka Customs — National Imports Tariff Guide (HS 8703 motor vehicles)
• Ministry of Finance — Excise (Special Provisions) Notice Orders (Act No. 13 of 1989)
• Inland Revenue Department — Value Added Tax (Act No. 14 of 2002)
• Inland Revenue Department — Social Security Contribution Levy (Act No. 25 of 2022)
• Ports and Airports Development Levy Act No. 18 of 2011
• Department of Imports & Exports Control — vehicle-import circulars

The duty-stack methodology and statutory rates on this page were last cross-checked against the Sri Lanka Customs and Inland Revenue source documents on 2026-05-12. The excise per-cc / per-kW figures are editorial estimates based on the most recent Excise Notice Order pattern — verify against the gazette in force on your bill-of-entry date before clearing any vehicle. The page is reviewed after each Budget speech and whenever a new Excise Notice Order is gazetted.