COLOMBO – Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe has lifted import controls on over 150 items banned in August and allowed others to come in under licences or special approval.
The relaxing of the ban was announced in a gazette notice issued under Sri Lanka’s import control law effective Friday (9). The items now free to be imported or imported under licence or special approval include industrial machinery, a series of building materials, machine parts, tools, ball bearings, agricultural implements and toilet paper.
However, the import of squatting pans have been added to the list of banned items, supposedly to ‘save foreign exchange’.
Forex shortages are a problem associated with intermediate regime central banks (soft-pegs or flexible exchange rates) and are absent in hard pegs or clean floats.
Sri Lanka’s industries and small enterprises, which are already operating under difficult conditions, complained they were further hit by the import ban on over 300 items slapped in August.
According to the gazette notification, some raw materials and capital goods require for factories could be imported on a recommendation of the Secretary of the Ministry of Industries, while accessories needed for fisheries would be allowed on a recommendation of the Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries.
It also specifies that franchise holders and operators of international chains would be allowed to import under a licence by the Controller General of Imports and Exports, and that imports for duty free sales and re-export will also be allowed.
-economynext.com
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