Import restrictions on 300 more items to be relaxed

July 12, 2023 at 1:02 PM

The government will take measures to ease the import restrictions imposed on 300 more essential items, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya announced today.

Taking to Twitter, State Minister Siyambalapitiya said that the import restrictions are expected to be relaxed by next week. 

The government last issued a gazette notification lifting the import ban on over 240 items in June 2023.

The government imposed a ban on several items as a part of its prolonged stringent import restrictions from March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The ban on imports continued due to the economic crisis until as recently as November last year after which the government took measures to relax import restrictions on several goods in batches. 

Earlier in 2023, Sri Lanka had also expressed its intention to the European Union (EU) to present a plan by June to lift the import restrictions currently imposed in the country. (NewsWire)