• An inquiry will be made to determine whether anyone had opened letters of credits through any bank

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana  

 There was minimal allowance for anyone to exploit the opportunity made available to them to import tiles and sanitaryware after the temporary relaxation of import restrictions, State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabral informed Parliament yesterday.   

State Minister Cabral said there was hardly any time for any importer to open letters of credit as a result of the removal of import restrictions. “Emails were sent to all banks and the Department of Customs as soon as the temporary easing of import restriction was cancelled,” he said.   Mr. Cabral was responding to a question raised by Mr. Dissanayake as to whether the import restriction was temporarily removed to help any importer or importers to gain some benefits.  The State Minister said a new gazette notification had already been issued creating a win-win situation for importers, local tile producers and consumers.