The government will take measures in the near future to relax the import ban on several items, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
According to the Finance Ministry, the State Minister stated that the matter will be taken into consideration in order to achieve the targetted Customs income.
State Minister Siyambalapitiya made the remarks to the media yesterday (18) following a discussion with Customs officials on the yearly income target.
Stating that a target of Rs. 270 billion was set as Customs income for the first three months of 2023, the State Minister said, however, the current income reported is less than 12% of the expected income.
He pointed out that this was due to the ban imposed on the imports of several items at present.
“An import ban was imposed on 485 items in 2021 and it was revised to 750 items in 2022. Also, the depreciation of the Sri Lankan Rupee against the US Dollar in March also severely affected the Customs income,” he said.
State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said, therefore, measures will be taken to consider relaxing the import ban in the future.
He added that the decision will be taken based on the recommendations of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. (NewsWire)
