The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), at its meeting held yesterday (08) decided to impose a 100 percent cash margin deposit requirement against the importation of selected goods of non-essential/non-urgent nature made under Letters of Credit and Documents against Acceptance terms with Licensed Commercial Banks, along with the National Savings Bank.
The CBSL notes that this will be effective immediately.
“The decision to impose the cash margin deposit requirement is expected to support the ongoing efforts to preserve the stability of the exchange rate and foreign currency market liquidity, particularly by discouraging excessive imports of speculative nature,” the CBSL said in a press release issued today.
A summary of product categories that are subjected to cash margin deposit requirements, along with information on import expenditure under each category in 2019, 2020 and thus far in 2021 (provisional), is given in the table below:
