Motor vehicle emission test certificates:

Irregularities to be controlled - Official

Disna MUDALIGE

Prominent attention is given to control irregularities in issuing Motor Vehicle Emission Test Certificates, Motor Traffic Department Commissioner General B D L Darmapriya said.

He said there have been incidents of obtaining emission certificates after adjusting parts of vehicles before the test.

"Some remove various parts in the vehicle and some block valves. We just test the smoke coming out of vehicles. Up to now there is no mechanism to check internal parts of a vehicle.

"It is through these experiences that we become aware of such issues. Workers at a garage know many tactics than us in this regard.

"We need to follow these, and adjust our system in a way these can be identified and prevented," he told the Daily News.

Commenting on the increase in the emission test fee, Darmapriya said it was done to cover the initial expenditure of private companies that conduct the test.

"They had to buy lands and make an investment for this program. This amount had to be covered. First, we calculated this fee including all vehicles in the country.

"But thereafter we emitted government buses and police vehicles and the new vehicles which were registered three years before or less than that. We had to raise the fee by a small amount due to this," he said.