COLOMBO, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government will remove the import restrictions on vehicles, except private vehicles, by next week, a state minister said on Wednesday.
State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe told parliament that the country's economy has stabilized, and thus the country is able to relax import restrictions.
However, allowing individuals to import vehicles for private use, at this juncture, can have serious negative consequences, the state minister said.
In August 2023, Sri Lanka announced it relaxed restrictions on vehicles required for the transportation of goods and passengers.
The Sri Lankan government restricted the import of 1,465 items in August 2022 due to the economic crisis but lifted restrictions on most of those items on several separate occasions.
Official data show that Sri Lanka's total import expenditure in 2022 amounted to over 18 billion U.S. dollars, recording a decline of 11.4 percent from 2021. ■