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20% surcharge on imports will not be eliminated by 2003, says Central Bank

The Central Bank referring to our lead story of Saturday states that the 20 per cent surcharge on imports will not be eliminated by the end of 2003 as reported but will be gradually phased out over a period of several years making consumer goods more affordable to the public.

The original communique issued by the Marco and Trade Policy Steering Committee said: "As a first step, the 40 per cent surcharge imposed in 2001 was reduced to 20 per cent in 2002.

"This has obvious benefits to consumers by bringing down the cost of imported products. For example, prices of food items such as dried fish, sprats and canned fish fell, as did the prices of bicycles, radios and TVs. "It is expected that the surcharge will be phased out gradually.

As tariff reforms progress further, consumers will continue to benefit from lower prices for consumer goods imports that will make them more affordable to the general public. "At the same time investors will benefit from lower imported investment good prices and exporters will benefit from lower prices for their imported inputs, making Sri Lankan exports more competitive in the international market".

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