President directs officials to address growing concerns surrounding e-commerce
July 9, 2025 06:11 am
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called on officials to address the growing concerns surrounding e-commerce and deliver efficient, fair and customer-centric solutions to the issues currently faced in this area, the President’s Media Division said.
President Dissanayake held a meeting with senior officials of the Sri Lanka Customs Department to discuss a number of issues at the Presidential Secretariat.
The discussion focused extensively on identifying solutions to challenges arising from the complexity of customs procedures, the PMD added.
Attention was also drawn to the technological solutions implemented thus far as part of the department’s institutional digitization process and the obstacles encountered in that effort, particularly in the context of achieving the government’s goal of establishing a digital economy by 2030, according to the PMD.
In this context, the President had instructed officials to expedite the process of amending existing legislations, identifying it as a key challenge that must be addressed without delay.
A review was conducted of the on-going ASYCUDA system and its existing shortcomings, the National Single Window service, and key challenges such as accurate recording of imports and exports, the granting of tax exemptions and the proper identification of revenue.
The discussion also focused on digitalization as a means to address these issues and assessed the progress of measures already implemented.
The meeting was attended by Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma, Senior Presidential Advisor on Digital Economy Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, Senior Additional Secretary to the President, Russell Aponso, Director General of Customs P.B.S.C. Nonis and other officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Digital Economy.
