Restrictions have been imposed on the importation of nearly 433 goods, including vegetables, fruits, and agricultural items in order to stabilize the economy, State Minister of Samurdhi, Household Economy, Micro Finance, Self Employment, and Business Development Shehan Semasinghe has announced.
State Minister Semasinghe informed Parliament yesterday (10), that tiles, granites, wood items, plastics, face masks, bicycles, soap, onions, etc. were among the other small items that fall under the importation restrictions.
MP Shehan Semasinghe made the statement in response to a question raised by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MP Gamini Waleboda in this regard from the Prime Minister.
Stating that the Government had spent US$ 2.2 billion in 2018 and US$ 1.2 billion in 2019 to import the aforementioned items, MP Semasinghe said by imposing the temporary restrictions, the Government has been able to save US$ 1.6 billion.
State Minister Semasinghe further said steps are being taken to operate local vehicle assembling plants to mitigate the shortage of vehicles in the local market due to the ban imposed on the importation of vehicles.
He revealed that eleven investors have already held discussions with the Government in this regard.
The State Minister went on to say that the Ministry of Industries has launched several programmes to locally produce several products that are listed under the temporary importation ban. (NewsWire)