Sri Lanka™s bilateral trade deal with India allows for a phasing out of tariffs over an eight year period, for goods that are not on a sensitive list.
Under the trade deal, tariffs are to come down to not less than 70 percent of the general customs duty rate this year, to be completely removed by 2008.
The new tariff schedule has already been published as a Revenue Protection Order last week and the new tariff changes have taken effect from September 16, C S W Jayatilake, Director General of Sri Lanka Customs, told LBO on Monday.
For imports of finished goods from India, tariffs will drop from 28 percent to 8.40 percent and from 2.5 percent to 0.75 percent for industrial raw materials and machinery.
For semi-processed raw materials, tariffs will come down from 6.0 percent to 1.80 percent and for intermediate inputs with domestic production, from 15 percent to 4.50 percent.
The tariff phase on Indian imports would cover about 2000 goods, including petroleum products, moto