Update on decision to suspend importing 600 non-essential items

March 7, 2022 at 10:10 AM

The Ministry of Finance is set to present to the Cabinet a list of non-essential items.

Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, S.R. Attygalle said the list will be presented to the Cabinet today (07).

He further said after receiving the Cabinet recommendation for the list, the relevant gazette notification will be issued soon after. 

The Government earlier temporarily suspend the import of 600 non-essential items as a solution to the current foreign exchange crisis.

According to reports, the Government is restricting imports of non-essentials to support the ongoing efforts to preserve the stability of the exchange rate and foreign currency market liquidity, particularly by discouraging excessive imports of a speculative nature.

Official sources said the Finance Ministry is proposing to suspend the import of 600 non-essential items considering the pros and cons of the proposal submitted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) which had only requested to raise taxes on those items.

They said the ministry has taken a decision to suspend the import of these non-essentials as it is a more feasible option than increasing taxes on these items.

According to Central Bank data, the expenditure on imports of consumer goods increased by US$ 447.05 million to US$ 3848.71 million in 2021 from US$ 3401.66 million in 2020.

Provisional estimates and mathematical model predictions have revealed that however, the tax revenue from the increase in 600-700 non-essentials will be around 5 to 10 per cent. (NewsWire)