Pic by Nimalsiri Edrisinghe

Sri Lanka Customs, addressing recent delays from the ‘Go Slow’ campaign, has announced that efforts are underway to release all remaining containers by this evening.

In a statement released during the weekend, Sri Lanka Customs said that to clear the backlog the officials worked on Saturday as a ‘normal working day’ and aim to have all containers cleared by Monday ( July 15) evening.
“Cooperation of the importers and clearing agents is necessary for this and only if they work together to release their containers, the delay can be ended on Monday,” Sri Lanka Customs said in a statement.

It asserted that Trade Facilitation Service is provided only for containers legally declared to Customs.
“Customs will not release containers identified as risky without inspection regardless of delay,” it stressed.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Customs also set the record straight stating that despite claims made by certain groups, there is a shortage of food and medicine due to the delay in clearance of containers.

“The public is being misled. The RCT yard that clears essential food and medicine works day and night 7 days a week. There has been no delay in the clearance of those goods and there is no possibility of any shortage,” it said.
From 8 July to 12 July, 5,557 containers were registered and submitted to Customs, out of which 4838 containers were released to the importers by the Customs.

Nearly 970 containers have been released to the importers by the Customs daily.
As of Friday (12 July) evening, about 2000 containers remain for release from the total number of containers registered for clearance.
Sri Lanka Customs can release more than 1000 containers per day.