Customs guide on exports and imports for traders

Anjana Samarasinghe

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Customs will publish a compendium of rules and regulations related to imports and exports in Sri Lanka to educate traders.

Many traders who are engaged in exports and imports do not have a clear understanding on rules and regulations related to import and export due to non availability of proper information said Director General of Sri Lanka Customs Sarath Jayatileke at the monthly high-level policy forum organised by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka FCCISL and Small and Medium Enterprise Developers SMED recently.

The Customs plans to publish a compendium of rules and regulations, which are related to exports and imports.

This publication will be made available to all importers and exporters in different sectors Jayatileke said.

"Most corruption could be minimized through an automated system in the customs procedures while decision-making could be done through automated systems.

"Reducing man to man meetings at the customs, work and simplifying customs procedures are important to prevent corruption in the export and import trade" he said.

The automated system should be integrated with other government organisations such as the Ports Authority and Department of Import and Exports.

This automated system will be enforced under the finance and management reforms by the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, he said.

At the recent WTO conference many guidelines were proposed to facilitate customs regulations. Still these proposals are under discussion.

According to the Customs Director General, Government was able to gain Rs. 379.7 billion through revenue collection last year. Sri Lanka Customs contributed Rs. 191 billion to the revenue and this is recorded as 58 percent from the total revenue collection.

However imports of motor vehicles have contributed 30 percent for the revenue collected through Customs.