RMV nets Rs. 700 m and proves top revenue earner

Shirajiv Sirimane

RMV INCOME: The Registrar of Motor Vehicles (RMV) Department has earned a revenue in excess of Rs. 700 million in the first six months of this year.

Commissioner B. Wijayaratne said that in addition they have earned Rs. 50 million in the first ten days of August this year. The revenue generated in July was Rs. 130.2 million and in June it was Rs. 123.7 million.

The RMV earned Rs. 7.5 million from new registration and transfer of vehicles while Rs. 2 million was collected from requesting special numbers for vehicles in the first 10 days of this month.

The RMV is among the top five revenue-generating institutions for the Government after Inland Revenue, Customs, Excise Department along with the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

He said that the RMV was labelled as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country by the Auditor General recently. "This is mainly because there was no co-ordination among Customs and several other relevant institutions which stopped the flow of documentation to the RMV, " he said.

Exploiting this loop-hole people used to change the documentation when declaring the type of the vehicle, year of manufacture and several other requirements. There were also several loopholes in the issue of import permits.

The RMV also discontinued the physical checking of motor vehicles a few years ago and this too has led to several malpractices.

"Earlier the RMV was only getting chassis numbers and a few copies of limited documentation done at the Port. Wijayaratne said that they have now coordinated with Customs and other institutions and now they are getting more important details, which have, helped to solve this problem and tighten loopholes and minimise fraud. "Now there is a check and balance system," he said.

All vehicle importers too have been requested to register with the RMV to streamline operations.

"We have also developed a software which would enable companies to fill new registrations and give those details on a CD so that we could process them. This is on a test stage and is proving to be very successful," he said

He also said that the RMV is governed by laws that were introduced in 1951 and a few amendments being done in 1980's. "The RMV is now in the process of introducing new legislation to Parliament soon and the Law Commission is now in the process of drafting them.

He said that a new driving licence too would be introduced soon so that it could provide more information. "Today the licences do not give information on demerit points and the new licence is designed with a electronic chip which would provide information on all offences recorded by the licence holder," he said.

Equipment would be also provided for Police stations to read these new licences.

A new electronic system would be introduced to do theory tests when issuing driving licences which would enable the authorities to process it in a day. The President who paid a surprise visit to the RMV instructed to speed up procedure and this is a result of his instructions.

In addition district offices would be opened in Gampaha, Kandy, Kalutara, Kurunegala and Galle.

"We are also planning to refurbish the RMV at a cost of Rs. 3 million, for which the Treasury has granted funds," he said.