Government officials will meet this week to decide on the possibility of relaxing the rules regarding the use of tinted windscreens in vehicles.
According to reliable sources, officials of the Ministry of Defence, Police, Ministry of Transport and other related authorities will meet on Wednesday, April 5 at the Civil Security Division of the Ministry of Defence to discuss the matter.
Officials are said to be considering relaxing the rules due to the large number of requests being made to the Ministry of Defence seeking permission to use tinted windows.
“Many of the requests are from Government Ministries, Departments, Corporations, Private Organizations and members of the public,” a Ministry official said adding that they sited varying reasons for the need to use tinted windows.
Therefore, officials are now considering a mechanism to grant approval to selected parties and individuals enabling them to use tinted windscreens, the official said. In recent times, the Police have been cracking down on motorists using curtains or tinted windows on either side and on the front of the vehicle. Government Gazette No. 875/08 of June 16, 1995 and Gazette No. 1273/28 of January 31, 2003 prohibits the
windscreen and the two shutters besides the driver to be tinted while 20 per cent of the top portion of the windscreen can be tinted according to the Gazettes. However, it is currently legal to tint or curtain the back windows while VIP vehicles coming under the purview of Ministries are exempted from the law regarding tinted windscreens, if they have approval.