The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the appointment of a committee to provide temporary monitoring relief and introduce a long-term regulatory framework for e-commerce activities.

According to the government, the new committee will comprise officers in relevant institutions.

The government states that the volume of imports to Sri Lanka through cross-border e-commerce has increased with the rapid growth of e-commerce activities in the country. 

As such, the government believes the necessary regulations must be introduced for the collection of tax income from e-commerce activities that could provide special economic benefits. 

Identifying certain shortcomings in the customs clearance procedure followed regarding imports across e-commerce platforms, the government amended the customs clearance procedure of Sri Lanka Customs.

However, the delays, escalating transaction costs, disruption of public trust, decline in transparency and predictions regarding prices caused due to the execution of those amendments have created unrest among e-commerce platform users, especially individual commuters and small-scale importers. 

Accordingly, the Cabinet has approved the proposal by the President, in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, to appoint a committee to provide temporary monitoring relief and introduce a long-term regulatory framework for e-commerce activities. (Newswire)

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President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has addressed the growing concerns surrounding e-commerce, calling on officials to deliver efficient and fair, customer-centric solutions to the issues currently faced in this area.

The President issued the directive during a meeting with senior officials of the Sri Lanka Customs Department held at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday.

According to the President’s Office, the discussion also focused extensively on identifying solutions to challenges arising from the complexity of customs procedures. 

Attention was also drawn to the technological solutions implemented thus far as part of the department’s institutional digitization process and the obstacles encountered in that effort, particularly in the context of achieving the government’s goal of establishing a digital economy by 2030. 

In this context, the President instructed officials to expedite the process of amending existing legislation, identifying it as a key challenge that must be addressed without delay.

A review was also conducted of the ongoing ASYCUDA system and its existing shortcomings, the National Single Window service, and key challenges such as accurate recording of imports and exports, the granting of tax exemptions and the proper identification of revenue. 

The discussion focused on digitalization as a means to address these issues and assessed the progress of measures already implemented.

The meeting was attended by Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma, Senior Presidential Advisor on Digital Economy Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, Senior Additional Secretary to the President, Russell Aponso, Director General of Customs P.B.S.C. Nonis and other officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Digital Economy. (Newswire)

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