The EV Permit (Circular 2/2022) for Foreign-Currency Earners — 2026 Diaspora Guide

For four years between 2020 and early 2025, the front door into a Sri Lankan car import was bolted shut. Foreign-exchange pressure had forced a near-total freeze on vehicle imports. The single side door that stayed open belonged to Circular 2/2022 — a measure that allowed Sri Lankan diaspora and other foreign-currency earners to import a fully-electric vehicle using funds remitted from abroad and held in an NRFC or PFCA account.

Diaspora professionals in London, Toronto, Dubai, Melbourne and the Bay Area who wanted to put a car under their family in Sri Lanka had effectively one product to choose from in that window: a Nissan Leaf, a Tesla, an Ioniq 5 or a BMW iX3.

The broader import freeze ended on 1 February 2025. The permit structure still exists, and for a specific kind of buyer it is still the cleanest route. This guide walks through what Circular 2/2022 actually does, who qualifies, what it costs in 2026 versus a standard EV import, and how to decide which channel fits your situation.

What Circular 2/2022 actually is

Circular 2/2022 is a Department of Imports and Exports (DoIE) measure — issued in coordination with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka — that authorises the importation of battery electric vehicles by Sri Lankan citizens earning in foreign currency, with the import value paid for from foreign-currency funds remitted into Sri Lanka through formal banking channels.

In plain terms, it does four things:

1. Carves out a permitted vehicle class during the broader import freeze — fully-electric cars only, no petrol, no diesel, no hybrid, no PHEV
2. Restricts the funding source to foreign-currency remittances held in an NRFC (Non-Resident Foreign Currency) account, a PFCA (Personal Foreign Currency Account), or remitted directly in USD/GBP/EUR/AED for the purpose
3. Restricts the buyer profile to Sri Lankans earning in foreign currency — diaspora workers, returning residents within the qualifying window, dual citizens, and (in practice) expatriates resident in Sri Lanka who are paid in foreign currency
4. Requires an import permit to be issued by the DoIE for each vehicle before the bid commits

The permit document itself is what customs references at clearance. Without it, even a paid-for EV cannot leave the port.

Why it mattered between 2022 and 2025

For most of 2020–2024, no new car could be imported into Sri Lanka. A whole cohort of would-be buyers — diaspora wanting to gift a car to family, expatriates posted to Colombo on USD packages, returning citizens after long stints abroad — had no legal product to buy unless they accepted a second-hand local vehicle at sharply inflated post-freeze prices.

Circular 2/2022 became the diaspora’s only path. The traffic concentrated on a small number of models:

• Nissan Leaf (40 kWh and 62 kWh) — the structural winner, large used inventory in Japan, lowest landed price
• Tesla Model 3 RHD JDM — high-status, well-supported via independent service in Colombo
• BMW i3 / iX3 — boutique pick for design-driven buyers
• Hyundai Ioniq 5 / Kona EV — family-sized, longer range
• BYD Atto 3 / Dolphin — newer entries, low landed price

For diaspora customers who wanted a car under family during that period, the choice set was effectively “an EV or nothing.” That shaped a generation of Sri Lankan first-EV adopters.

What changed on 1 February 2025

Sri Lanka reopened broader vehicle imports on 1 February 2025. Petrol, diesel, hybrid, used and new — the full menu became legal again, subject to a refreshed tax stack and the 60% LTV cap for any leased portion.

Two questions then immediately follow:

1. Does Circular 2/2022 still operate? Yes. The foreign-currency EV permit channel was not withdrawn. It coexists with the reopened standard import channel.
2. Should I still use it? Sometimes. The standard channel is now more flexible — you can import a hybrid, a petrol vehicle, or finance the purchase through an SL bank lease. The Circular 2/2022 channel is narrower (EVs only, FX funding required) but cleaner if those constraints already fit your situation.

Who should still use the Circular 2/2022 channel in 2026

The permit channel is the right call when three things are simultaneously true:

1. You earn (or are sitting on) foreign currency that you want to deploy without converting through the local rupee FX market
2. You want a fully-electric vehicle anyway, on its merits — long range, low running cost, the EV duty advantage
3. You want the FX-source audit trail to be unambiguous at customs — your funds came in via NRFC/PFCA, the BoP code identifies them as a vehicle-purchase remittance, and there is no question at clearance about source of funds

A profile that fits all three: a software engineer in London with GBP savings, who wants a Tesla Model Y or a Nissan Leaf 62 kWh for her parents in Negombo, paid for entirely from a Lloyds-to-NRFC SWIFT transfer.

A profile that does not fit: a Toronto-based engineer who wants a 2024 Toyota Voxy Hybrid for his parents. Voxy is not eligible under Circular 2/2022 (it is a hybrid, not a BEV). He uses the standard reopened import channel and structures the remittance through the diaspora playbook covered in our buying-from-abroad guide.

Eligibility — who counts as a “foreign-currency earner”

The circular language is broad in spirit and specific in implementation. In practice the DoIE accepts:

• Sri Lankan citizens employed abroad — payslip and employment contract from a foreign employer, foreign tax return where applicable
• Sri Lankan dual citizens with foreign income
• Returning residents (Sri Lankans who lived overseas continuously for the qualifying period — typically 365+ days — and now returning) using foreign-currency savings
• Expatriates resident in Sri Lanka paid in foreign currency under their employment contract (typical for the diplomatic, multilateral, and INGO cohort)
• Migrant workers in the Middle East, Korea, Japan, etc., with documented overseas earnings remitted home

What is not eligible:

• Local Sri Lankan rupee earnings converted to USD and parked in a PFCA (the circular is intended to bring new foreign currency into the country, not recycle existing local funds)
• Family gifts from a non-Sri Lankan citizen — the registered importer must be the foreign-currency earner themselves or a direct family member structure approved at application
• Pure investment-vehicle imports for commercial resale (the permit is for personal/family use)

Funds — NRFC, PFCA and the BoP code

The structural requirement is that the payment for the vehicle leaves a foreign-currency account opened in your name (or your family co-applicant’s name) at a Sri Lankan commercial bank.

NRFC — Non-Resident Foreign Currency

• Opened by Sri Lankan citizens living overseas
• Holds USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, AED, JPY, SGD
• Interest is tax-free in Sri Lanka
• Funds can leave the account in foreign currency or be converted to LKR at withdrawal
• For Circular 2/2022 imports, the wire to the importer happens in foreign currency, ideally to the importer’s foreign-currency bank account

PFCA — Personal Foreign Currency Account

• Open to Sri Lankan residents (including expatriates resident in Sri Lanka)
• Same multi-currency support and tax treatment as NRFC for permitted credits
• Used by expatriates resident locally and by returning residents

The BoP code that matters

Every cross-border remittance into Sri Lanka carries a Bill of Payments (BoP) classification code that the recipient bank attaches at credit. For a Circular 2/2022 import the remittance is coded as a personal vehicle-purchase remittance (the precise code varies by bank and circular vintage — we coordinate with your bank to confirm at the time of transfer).

This code is what later supports the source-of-funds verification at customs clearance. Get it wrong at remittance and you can spend weeks unwinding it at the bank before customs will release the vehicle.

EV tax math — why the duty advantage is real

EVs in Sri Lanka are taxed on a fundamentally different basis from petrol, diesel and hybrid cars. Petrol and hybrid duty scales with engine displacement (cc). EV duty scales with motor power in kilowatts (kW).

The structural difference for a typical car-class EV:

Tax line	Petrol 1,500cc	Hybrid 1,500cc	EV 110 kW (Leaf-class)
Excise basis	per cc	per cc (lower than petrol)	per kW
Excise rate (2026 indicative)	~LKR 6,000/cc	~LKR 3,500/cc	LKR 12,000/kW
Excise on a typical car	~LKR 9.0M	~LKR 5.25M	~LKR 1.32M
Luxury-tax threshold (CIF)	LKR 3.5M	LKR 5.0M	LKR 6.0M

Specific cc and kW rates are revised periodically — see the live excise duty 2026 explainer and the luxury-tax threshold explainer for the current numbers and worked examples. The directional point is stable: the EV channel pays meaningfully less excise per equivalent vehicle, and the LKR 6M luxury threshold is the highest of any fuel category.

This is true whether you import under Circular 2/2022 or under the standard reopened channel. The duty advantage is a function of the vehicle being a BEV, not the permit you used. But buyers who already have foreign currency lined up are often the ones who can most cleanly capture it.

Worked example — Nissan Leaf 62 kWh for parents in Kandy

Priya, a data engineer in Toronto, GBP and CAD savings in a Lloyds NRFC, importing a 2022 Nissan Leaf 62 kWh (110 kW motor, Tekna trim) for her parents.

Line item	Amount	Notes
FOB Japan (auction price)	JPY 2,200,000	~CAD 22,500 at indicative rate
Inland Japan + RoRo freight + insurance	JPY 250,000
CIF Colombo	JPY 2,450,000	~LKR 5.46M at indicative rate
Customs duty (general 20% on CIF)	LKR 1.09M
VAT (18% on CIF + duty)	LKR 1.18M
Excise (LKR 12,000 × 110 kW)	LKR 1.32M
PAL (10% on CIF)	LKR 0.55M
Luxury tax	LKR 0	CIF below LKR 6M threshold
Clearing, port handling, transport	LKR 0.35M
Landed price	~LKR 9.95M
Wired in: CAD ~33,000 from NRFC		One initial deposit + one balance

For Priya the appeal is the clean FX trail (CAD straight from Lloyds to the importer’s bank), the structural duty advantage of the EV channel, and a car her parents can charge on a 13A overnight socket at their Kandy home with no petrol queues during currency squeezes. The whole import takes ~7 weeks from permit application to delivery.

Compare to a hybrid alternative — a 2022 Toyota Voxy Hybrid at CIF ~LKR 6.8M lands at ~LKR 14–15M after duty, VAT, excise on the 1,797cc engine, and the LKR 5M luxury threshold being crossed. Larger cabin, more flexibility for the parents — but ~LKR 5M more out of Priya’s NRFC for what is, in daily use around Kandy, a near-equivalent vehicle.

How Circular 2/2022 compares to the standard reopened channel

Dimension	Circular 2/2022 (EV permit)	Standard reopened channel
Eligible vehicles	Battery electric only	All — petrol, diesel, hybrid, PHEV, BEV
Funding source	NRFC / PFCA / FX remittance only	Any — local LKR, lease finance, FX remittance
Buyer eligibility	Sri Lankan FX earner	Any Sri Lankan resident or diaspora
Lease finance	Not applicable (full FX payment)	Up to 60% LTV via SL bank or NBFI
Permit step	Yes — per vehicle, DoIE issues	No separate permit beyond normal customs declaration
Time to import	7–9 weeks including permit	6–8 weeks
Customs source-of-funds questions	Pre-resolved by NRFC/PFCA + BoP code	Standard remittance documentation required
Best for	Diaspora wanting EV with clean FX trail	Diaspora wanting hybrid or financed purchase

Both channels are operational in 2026. Neither blocks the other.

When to use the Circular 2/2022 channel — and when not to

Use the EV permit channel if:

• You hold foreign currency in an NRFC or PFCA you’d like to deploy without LKR conversion friction
• An EV is genuinely the right vehicle for the family (predictable daily km, home charging available, secondary car or replacement for an older sedan)
• You value the up-front FX audit trail at customs

Use the standard reopened channel if:

• The family needs a 7-seater, a 4WD, or a vehicle better suited to long inter-province runs than current EV range comfortably supports
• You want to finance part of the purchase through a Sri Lankan lender — Circular 2/2022 imports are typically full-cash from FX, not financed
• The family member uses the car for variable-distance work (rideshare, sales, frequent up-country runs without dependable charging)
• You want to preserve flexibility on the specific model — many of the most-shipped diaspora picks (Voxy Hybrid, Vellfire, Alphard, Land Cruiser, Harrier Hybrid) are not BEVs

What we do for you

We process both Circular 2/2022 EV permits and standard reopened imports. For a foreign-currency-funded EV specifically, our workflow is:

1. Confirm eligibility based on your residency and FX-earning status
2. Coordinate with your bank to confirm the BoP code on the incoming remittance
3. Submit the DoIE permit application alongside the vehicle KYC pack
4. Bid at the next Japan auction once the permit is issued, with the auction sheet and photo set sent for your approval before commitment
5. Handle clearance, registration and family-member handover at the Sri Lankan end

Get a quote — tell us where you are, the currency of your savings, and the kind of family use you have in mind. We come back with a permit-versus-standard recommendation, a landed-price breakdown, and a remittance plan that survives customs scrutiny.

Read also

• Diaspora car-buying guide — broader playbook for any diaspora-funded purchase
• JPY/LKR exchange rate guide — FX timing strategies for any FX-funded import
• Excise duty Sri Lanka 2026 — the per-kW EV duty schedule in full
• Luxury tax CIF threshold 2026 — the LKR 6M EV luxury threshold mechanics
• 60% LTV cap explained — only relevant if you finance part of the purchase, not for full-FX imports
• Electric cars Sri Lanka best-of — current EV picks from live inventory
• EV glossary entry — short definition and tax mechanics
• Browse Nissan Leaf inventory — the most-shipped diaspora EV