This came to light when these TUs met incumbent Maithripala Sirisena to discuss the permission given by the finance minister to release the vehicles.

In order to save a racketeer friend of his, Rajapaksa had, through trade and investment circular no. 01/2013 dated 02.02.2013, given permission to transfer ownership of vehicles imported under particular licenses to any party at any time, the TUs noted.

The government has lost a tax income of around Rs. 1,000 million due to the release of the vehicles, they said in a statement.

Given below is the statement: