News
Ban on import of more luxury items
The list of banned imported luxury items is to be expanded and the period of ban is to vary from three months to six months to stop a foreign exchange outflow of about US$ 500 million, the Government has decided.
Selected luxury food items and ready-made garments will be among the items that will be prohibited to be imported in an attempt overcome the financial crisis created by the spread of the coronavirus.
The moves were discussed at the Cabinet this week and the banned items’ list is due to be gazetted shortly, a Finance Ministry official said.
The decision was taken as the Sri Lankan rupee sharply depreciated against the US dollar. By Friday the rupee depreciated to Rs 193 against the US dollar.
The Central Bank earlier announced that the import ban would be applicable to vehicles.
Under the proposed plan, however, the government will continue with imports of raw material needed for industries including the garment sector.
“The objective will be if raw material or goods are needed for local industries they will be imported to keep our industries going. For instance, items needed to assemble computers or laptops will be imported,” the official explained.
On Friday, Joint Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told a news conference that there was a misconception created that the government was planning to restrict the import of food items also.
He was referring to comments made by Minister Ramesh Pathirana at the post-Cabinet media conference on Thursday.
Dr Pathirana earlier said all imports other than fuel and pharmaceuticals would be banned in keeping with a government decision.
However, Minister Gunawardena said that as a result of the comments there was panic in the markets and people were trying to buy various goods.