Sri Lanka promises tax and customs reforms. (World News).(Brief Article)

Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, March, 2002

SRI LANKA -- Falling revenues helped inflate last year's budget deficit in Sri Lanka too 10.5 percent of gross domestic product as the economy contracted by 0.6 percent, reported Reuters recently.

Businessmen her called for a new customs act and 24-hour clearing for some industries.

Customs revenues have been hit by a sharp drop in external trade, with imports falling much faster than exports because of the global recession and ethnic war.

The government accepted the need to allow prices at the weekly tea auctions in Colombo to be quoted in U.S. dollars rather than rupees.

The conference called for the suspension of plans to privatize the Ceylon Electricity Board, the state-owned monopoly whose big losses have been blamed for an...