Has AliExpress, Amazon and Temu abandoned Sri Lanka?

E-commerce websites such as AliExpress, Amazon or Temu have not stopped shipping products to Sri Lankan customers as claimed by certain factions, according to Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chathuranga Abeysingha.

Deputy Minister Abeysingha however acknowledged that an issue persists since Sri Lanka Customs changed its practice of imposing taxes on imported goods in April.

He said Sri Lanka has no policy on cross border e-commerce transactions and therefore the leniency of the authorities on such transactions were misused since 2017.

According to Deputy Minister Chaturanga Abeysingha, provisions are in place only for Business-to-Business transactions and not for Business-to-Consumer sales in Sri Lanka. He said therefore authorities allowed Business-to-Consumer transactions to take place with nominal taxes or without any charges for packages that are less than 1 kilogram in weight.

He said there weren’t any complications when one or two products were imported; however with the trend of mass imports for commercial purposes, authorities were forced to intervene.

Deputy Minister Abeysingha noted that since products were imported in mass quantities through certain e-commerce websites, Sri Lanka Customs decided to enforce the law strictly once again.

He said this resulted in data related to all imported products entered into the system with the inclusion of HS codes and also tax being imposed according to relevant HS codes.

Accordingly, at present, consumer goods are being taxed at rates that are applicable for products imported for commercial purposes, the Deputy Minister noted.

He said with the enforcement of the regulations, even smaller goods are being taxed at higher rates.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chaturanga Abeysingha stated that they are looking at the possibility of changing the tax policy and solving the impasse.

He claimed with the intervention of the government, the issue faced by Sri Lankan customers using e-commerce websites will be resolved in the near future.