Four years after tsunami the government is yet to categorise the total number of vehicles brought into the country for relief work taking advantage of duty concessions.

Hundreds of vehicles imported duty free had ended up with various individuals and organisations, a senior government official told The Island yesterday, acknowledging the inordinate delay in tracking down them down.

Responding to our queries, he said that several vehicles imported for tsunami relief work had been handed over to the Customs recently. He said that he couldn’t reveal the exact number of vehicles handed over to the Customs but it couldn’t be more than ten.

Well informed sources said that some of the vehicles had ended up in LTTE controlled areas. Among them were heavy earth moving machinery used by the LTTE to build earth bunds in the Vanni theatre of operations.

The Customs called for the registration of all vehicles, including those allowed to be used under a temporary registration number for government institutions, diplomatic missions and INGOs/NGOs with the Commissioner of Motor Traffic after the payment of Customs duty and other levies by November 30. The Director General of Customs on October 7 said that vehicles which hadn’t been registered should be re-exported or handed over to Customs by November 30.