S.Lankan Customs Contributes 1.28 Bln USD to Government Revenue 2000The Sri Lankan Customs department contributed 111 billion rupees (around 1.28 billion US dollars), or 47 percent, to the total government revenue by way of tariff collection last year, a nine million rupee (around 103,000 US dollars) increase over the previous year.A press release by the Customs said this had been achieved despite the reduction of normal tariff, exemption of crude oil from duty and the new preferential rate of duty for goods of Indian origin under the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement. The total value of penalties imposed and forfeitures made last year amounted to 201.8 million rupees (around 2.32 million US dollars) compared to 103.2 million rupees (around 1.18 million US dollars) the previous year. The Customs intelligence unit received 226 case reports compared to 426 in 1999. The report claimed that the department was the leader in revenue collection despite the reduction in nominal tariff from 35 to 25 percent. The department processes and finalizes about 675 documents and passes 500 containers a day. It has special express counters for perishable goods without any extra charge. |
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