• Will govern clearance of e-commerce goods 
• Intended to outline how goods should be declared and taxed
• Timeline for completion still uncertain

Sri Lanka Customs has commenced drafting new regulations to govern the clearance of e-commerce goods, which will be submitted to the Minister of Finance to be published in the gazette once completed.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Customs Media Spokesperson Chandana Punchihewa, whilst acknowledging that regulations were being drafted at present to govern e-commerce, further revealed that the proposed regulations would outline how e-commerce goods should be declared and taxed. 

“The regulations will address how goods are to be declared, whether it will be done as a normal Customs declaration or through a simplified document, and how applicable taxes will be imposed,” he explained.

He further noted that once the drafting process was completed, the regulations would have to be submitted for publication in the gazette by the Minister of Finance.

Punchihewa also revealed that the drafting process followed discussions held last year with representatives of major e-commerce platforms. “They indicated that they are not opposed to regulations, provided that these are clear and easy to comply with,” he said.

However, Punchihewa was unable to provide a specific timeline for the completion of the draft regulations, noting that he was not directly involved in the drafting process.

Meanwhile, speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Customs Director General Seevali Arukgoda acknowledged the need to streamline the clearance process for e-commerce imports.

He confirmed that the de minimis principle was no longer being applied to e-commerce goods and stated that there were no plans to reinstate it. He added that since shifting to taxing individual e-commerce consignments, revenue from such imports had increased threefold.

“We have moved away from bulk taxation to taxing individual packages,” he said.

Arukgoda further clarified that Customs did not intend to differentiate between Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce imports. 

He emphasised that e-commerce channels were not intended for commercial-scale imports, adding that any large-volume imports made through such platforms would be treated as regular commercial imports.