The government is looking into the possibility of further relaxing the restrictions placed on imports, State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said on Thursday.
The State Minister said that the import restrictions had been placed taking into consideration the economic crisis and prioritizing locally manufactured products.
Stating that 1465 items were prohibited from being imported via a Gazette issued in August, State Minister Siyambalapitiya said the restriction was relaxed on 708 items recently.
He said several items were released from the import restriction list after taking into consideration requests made by persons from various affected industries.
“Sri Lanka must focus on improving its exports and limiting its imports at this stage,” the State Minister said.
He added that taking into consideration more requests coming in, the government will consider further relaxing the import ban.
State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya made the comments when engaging in an inspection tour of the Department of Imports and Exports Control today. (NewsWire)
