Sri Lanka’s driver demerit points system will come into full effect on April 1 next year, at the end of the six-month public awareness campaign that began on October 1, Commissioner General of Motor Traffic retired Air Vice Marshal Thushara Fernando said.

Speaking on a television programme, Fernando said the campaign would run until March 31, with police officers explaining to motorists how demerit points will be imposed for traffic offences in addition to the existing penalties, the Daily Mirror reported at 6.51 a.m. on Wednesday.

“The public has been given six months to understand the system before it comes into effect,” he said.

What this settles, and what it confirms

When the scheme was announced in September, officials put the permanent rollout at “March 2027” without naming a date. Fernando’s April 1 pins it to the day after the campaign closes, so the two accounts are consistent rather than conflicting — the earlier figure was simply imprecise.

More significantly, he describes the current six months as an awareness campaign, not a live trial. That independently confirms what the Ministry of Digital Economy said on the day the pilot opened: no points are actually being deducted during this phase. Fines continue to be charged as before. A motorist penalised between now and March 31 is not losing points, and the licence suspension at zero points that the scheme is built around does not begin to bite until April.

Fernando is the same official who disclosed in October that licence card printing had halted over a card shortage, and who was appointed to the post in August. The 24-point allocation the Transport Minister first set out in Parliament in June was not restated, and no deduction schedule for individual offences has yet been published.

A second scheme: fitness tests issued by private garages

Fernando used the same interview to set out a vehicle fitness test the department is preparing, and the design he described differs materially from what was reported two months ago.

Under the proposed system, vehicle owners would take their vehicles to garages approved by the Department of Motor Traffic to obtain a fitness certificate, without a departmental examiner needing to be present. The department has already advertised for private garages to join the programme and is accepting applications.

The criteria have not been fixed. Fernando said discussions were under way on whether tests should be triggered by a vehicle’s mileage or by a specified time period. The question has been referred to the ministry’s legal division, and the views of the Sri Lanka Police are also being taken into account. The public will be told the final decision before April 1 next year.

“Obtaining an Eco Test certificate alone is not enough. It is also necessary to check whether a vehicle is roadworthy,” he said. The existing emission test measures exhaust output and nothing else, so a vehicle with worn brakes, failed lights or bald tyres can pass it and remain legally licensed.

Two differences from the August account

LankaNewz reported in August that the department planned a comprehensive roadworthiness certificate to replace the emission test from 2028, on the account of Dasun Gamage, Director of the department’s Vehicle Emission Testing Unit. That account differs from Fernando’s on two points, and neither official addresses the other.

On who inspects: the August account had the department recruiting around 300 of its own technicians to run the programme. Fernando describes certificates issued at approved private garages with no departmental examiner present — an outsourced model rather than an in-house inspectorate.

On timing: August gave 2028, with commercial passenger vehicles covered first. Fernando says the criteria decision will be announced before April 2027, which is earlier, though he did not say when testing itself would begin.

Whether these are two stages of one programme or a change of plan is not something either filing establishes, and this desk does not treat the later account as superseding the earlier one.

Not reported

Fernando did not say what a fitness certificate will cost, how many garages have applied, what standards an approved garage must meet, or how the department will audit certificates issued by private operators with no examiner present. He did not say whether the fitness test will replace the emission test or sit alongside it, nor which vehicle categories it will cover first. No deduction schedule for the demerit system has been published, and he did not say whether the 24-point allocation still stands.

No other verified newsroom had filed on the interview as of Wednesday morning; the Daily Mirror’s report is the sole account this desk could confirm.

Sources: Demerit points system to come into effect from April 1 — Daily Mirror, October 21.