Importers told to get tough on Customs
Traders seek more advantageous regulations through negotiations
Experts asked i mporters to not give Sri Lanka Customs any room to make excuses, to push the potential of Customs officials to the limit, and to speak up against foul play during a recent forum organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
“Don’t let the Customs have any space to make excuses. The more we make them do things, the more they will fall in line,” Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Import Section Chairman Dinesh De Silva said.
He asked i mporters to create situations through which the traders can negotiate and create more advantageous regulations.
“Make it impossible for them to do something. Stretch the limit. If you don’t do that, we won’t have a situation to negotiate. They will just say ‘if you had asked, we would have done it’,” De Silva added.
Association and Clearing and Forwarding Agents Chairman Anton Emmanuel requested the traders to make the most out of such opportunities by negotiating through a trade association or a chamber.
“If you personally go and make a complaint, it then becomes a rift between you and a certain officer. When we make a representation or a complaint since it’s a body, we can get an immediate solution,” he said.
However, he said that associations still face many problems with import control regulations, Sri Lanka Customs and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).
“Some of those, we have got immediate answers, but many of those are just swept under the carpet, and they just continue. There are no solutions,” he said.
Some issues raised by the importers included the air freight import license costing Rs. 500 a month compared to the SLPA annual license fee of Rs. 384, and the Board of Investment companies being charged Rs. 300 per import entry by Sri Lanka Customs at the World Trade Centre after 4pm despite the 24/7 customs operations.
“These are gimmicks they use,” Emmanuel said, and added that corruption had reached new heights in the recent years, and called for all traders to speak up against it.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake maintains that Tax revenue from external trade has averaged Rs. 2.5 billion daily since the regime change compared to Rs. 1 billion in the past, but said that collections were still lower than ideal. Sri Lanka Customs Director General Jagath Wijeweera who spearheaded the effort recently resigned, citing personal reasons.