COLOMBO, Jun 11 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Sri Lankan government, has relaxed import restrictions on over 300 items, including electronic equipment, sanitary ware and food items.
This new policy came into effect on Friday, following a gazette notification, issued by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies.
The Sri Lankan government restricted the import of 1,465 items in Aug, 2022, but lifted restrictions on over 800 of those items, on several separate occasions.
Official data show that, Sri Lanka’s total import expenditure in 2022 amounted to over 18 billion U.S. dollars, recording a decline of 11.4 percent from 2021.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said, this resulted from measures to restrict non-urgent imports, with liquidity constraints prevailing in the market for most of 2022.
State Minister of Finance, Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, said, the decision to further ease import restrictions has come directly as a result of improved availability of U.S. dollars.– NNN-XINHUA
