G/TFA/W/30  
22 October  2020 
(20-7300) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Trade Facilitation  Original:  English  
 
  
THE EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CUSTOMS OF  
SRI LANKA DURING THE COVID -19 OUTBREAK  
COMMUNICATION FROM SRI LANKA  
The following communication, dated 2 0 October  2020, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Sri Lanka . 
 
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1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  In the face of catastrophic COVID -19 virus outbreak, the entire world is in a dilemma due to 
its adverse impact on human life and on the global economy . This virus is being proliferated swiftly, 
almost all over the world.  
1.2.  In line with the government guidelines, Sri Lanka Customs (SLC) has launched initiatives & 
implemented many effective interim mechanisms to ensure the smooth flow of essential medical 
supplies and other commodities despite numerous c hallenges.  
1.3.  Key functions that SLC considered in this endeavour  include;  
• Facilitation of the Cross -Border Movement of Relief and Essential Supplies ; 
• Ensuring of health safety and protection of the staff and the public ; 
• Continuation of supply chain channels and contribution towards country 's economic 
development ; 
• Clearance of general cargo, passengers and their baggage within minimum Customs 
interventions amidst potential threat of smuggling ; 
• Maintaining of effective coordination steps for facilitati ng of regulatory approval with other 
governmental agencies ; 
• Managing of shipments executed under preferential trade schemes in par with 
bi-lateral/regional agreements.  
2  SRI LANKA CUSTOMS – THE CONTEXT  
2.1.  Sri Lanka Customs collects 57 % of the state tax revenue while facilitating legitimate 
International Trade and ensuring social protection . SLC is in the process of implementing numerous 
Best Border Practices as recommended under the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention and also as 
required unde r the WTO – TFA. 
2.2.  SLC provides clearance for 1200 import FCLs ' and processes around 525 export FCL 's on a daily 
average basis . According to the Time Release Study Survey conducted by SLC in 2018, the average 
time taken to clear an import sea cargo FCL is 16 .5 hours and 75 % of such FCLs ' are cleared within 
24 hours . Under prevailing circumstances, average import container handling volume per day has G/TFA/W/30  
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  dropped to 524 and around 95 % of such containers are being released approximately within half a 
day, while the processing of export containers was dropped to around 220 . As reported, Sri Lanka 
Ports Authority sources reveal that overall container (import, export, empty and transshipment) 
handling (TEU) has drop by 24 % as a result of the outbreak.  
3  STAFF AND PUBLIC – HEALTH AND SAFETY FIRST:  
3.1.  SLC, as the Frontline Border Agency, actively contributed to the Presidential Task Force on 
COVID -19 that was established to monitor, prevent the spreading of the disease and to provide 
essential services to sustain overall living  standards of communities in the country . Following Steps 
were taken in that regard;  
• Strict instructions were issued to minimize population gathering and to maintain social 
distance to contain contamination ; 
• Number of staff deployed was kept to a minimum o n a roster basis where one such group 
consists around 20 % of the normal number of staff ; 
• Instructions were issued to the rest of the staff to continue their duties remotely from their 
homes ; 
• Sanitizing facilities and protective gear were provided to the st aff as required, for instance 
for airport staff ; 
• A disinfecting chamber was established at the entrance to the Customs premises ; 
• An interim paperless procedure was introduced for electronic submission and processing 
of CUSDECS (Custom Declarations for Good s) taking advantage of existing e -payment 
platform.  
4  CONTINUOUS CROSS -BORDER MOVEMENT OF RELIEF AND ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES:  
4.1.  Uninterrupted facilitation of the cross -border movement of relief and essential commodities 
became an issue as a result of the imposition  of island -wide curfew . However, SLC provided its 
maximum interventions & contribution to expeditious release of essentials to sustain overall living 
standards of communities in the country, which is somewhat mirrored with the lessons learnt during 
colossa l disasters, such as, Tsunami in 2004.  
4.2.  Accordingly, the following policy decisions were put into action:  
• Routine cargo selectivity criteria were tailored, especially to release medium and low risk 
cargo with minimum or no customs intervention . As a result,  around 70 % of essential 
items were exempted from physical examination, subject to random inspection through 
Non-Intrusive Cargo Scanning ; 
• Regulatory approvals, such as, standards and permits were coordinated via electronic 
means to ensure expeditious release ; 
• Some selected regulatory requirements, such as, approvals for adherence of regulatory 
requirements (standards and licenses) were relaxed subject to post clearance audits . 
Supplementary measures were provided to facilitate routine refer rals to the Regulatory 
Agencies (for example, debiting of Import control licenses by the Department of Import 
Export Control were temporarily stopped in order to save time, unless it is deemed 
indispensable) ; 
• Prompt actions were taken to facilitate request s made by Foreign Missions, especially to 
expedite essential exports ; 
• Provisional online procedures were introduced to verify Certificates of Origin for according 
preferential tariff treatments for shipments traded under Preferential Trade Agreements ; G/TFA/W/30  
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  • Provisional clearance procedure was extended, with priority for consignments of relief 
goods and consignments needing expedited clearance ; 
• Existing 24 /7 services for exports were limited to approximately 8 hours per day in view 
of the low volume of exports, as most of the factories were closed for operations due to 
government contingency measures, which were recommended for ensuring minimizing 
human interactions and gathering . However, Customs staff was kept on an "On-Call" basis 
and were to report a s required during Customs non -operating hours ; 
• In addition to the regular Customs Enquiry Point, a special 24 /7 help desk was established 
to attend to stakeholder inquiries . COVID -19 Contingency Plans, which introduced newly 
stipulated working hours and ar rangements, along with personal contact numbers of 
relevant Unit Heads, were published and regularly updated on the SLC website 
(http://www.customs.gov.lk ) ensuring trade facilitation.  
5  CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS THE COU NTRY 'S ECONOMY AND SUSTAINING SUPPLY 
CHAIN CONTINUITY:  
5.1.  SLC, while being the key tax revenue provider of the state coffers, ensures the expeditious 
release and clearance of average numbers of import and export containers on a daily basis . However, 
as the cu rrent situation demanded an innovative approach, steps, were to be taken, focused on the 
expeditious movement of essential import and limited export containers . Thereby, the revenue 
aspect did not take precedence over the emerging serious health concerns.  
5.2.  The following policy decisions were adopted accordingly.  
• The scope of customs clearance was expanded from "the release of only selected essential 
cargo " to "the release of all general cargo ", but on an incremental basis ; 
• Regular meetings with key policy le vel authorities and Governmental agencies were held 
for carrying forward the political will ; 
• Concessionary tariff rates were introduced to ensure constant supply of essential 
medicines and medical devices ; 
• A Standard Operating Procedure was put in place for the processing of applications for 
Inward Processing and attending to incidental operational requests and inquiries, over 
electronic mail with templates, for ensuring undisrupted execution of industry and related 
import and export activities ; 
• Assisted Sri Lanka Ports Authority to clear spaces adjacent to cargo unloading bays in 
order to increase the efficiency of unloading goods from vessels keeping the supply chain 
undisrupted, by providing clearance for even non -essential goods from time to time ; 
• Clearance of general cargo, passengers and their baggage with minimum Customs 
interventions concerning the potential threat of smuggling activities ; 
• Deployment of narcotics and drug detective canines of the Sri Lanka Police Narcotics 
Bureau for the exami nation of essentials imported from High Risk Countries ; 
• Effective coordination with other Governmental Agencies to submit manually functioned 
regulatory approvals directly to the ASYCUDA platform ; 
• Imposition of routine penalty on late reporting of manifest s etc., were favourably  
considered and applicable penalties were waved off to zero.  
6  SRI LANKA CUSTOM 'S ENDEAVOUR ON PASSENGER FACILITATION:  
6.1.  Bandaranayake International Airport is the main international Airport in Sri Lanka . A daily 
average 27,000 inward an d outward passengers had been processed through this International 
Airport in year 2018.  According to the Airport sources, it has processed 12,025 inward passengers G/TFA/W/30  
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  and 12,722 outward passengers per day during the month of January  2020. However, this numbe r 
has been drastically dropped to approximately 50 inward passengers and 150 outward passengers, 
as a result of the containment measures.  
6.2.  In these circumstances, expedited clearance was provided for inward and outward passengers 
in accordance with the prot ection measures stipulated by the government.  
• Facilitated the processing of departing foreign nationals, mostly tourists, on special flights 
that were arranged ; 
• Expedited the processing of Sri Lankan nationals who were brought down on specially 
arranged fl ights and to be referred to specially established quarantine centres ; 
• Actions were taken to temporarily shut down the Unaccompanied Passenger Baggage 
(UPB) clearance depots at the initial stage, in view of the fact that the majority of these 
passengers are  from every corner of the island . However, the corresponding clearances 
were re -commenced after having established a flexible mechanism.  
7  ADDITIONAL FACILITATIVE MEASURES TAKEN UNDER PUBLIC -PRIVATE 
PARTNERSHIPS:  
7.1.  Regular meetings were held with private secto r stakeholders in order to provide remedies for 
addressing their issues and some strategies were changed accordingly . For instance, SLC 
implemented a hybrid system for acceptance of Customs declarations, both in manual and electronic 
means, until the broke rs get familiar with the said paperless process.  
• Necessary arrangements were made to manage curfew passes for the travel of Customs 
staff, transporters, and Customs House Agents etc., having coordinated with Sri Lanka 
Law Enforcement Agencies (Sri Lanka Po lice); 
• Requests of traders to waive port/Airport demurrage charges were efficiently coordinated 
with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, private container terminal operators and Air Cargo 
Authorities, as and when it is required ; 
• Fullest cooperation was extended  to Private stakeholders of Inland Clearance Depots 
(cargo examination points) to facilitate clearance of goods ; 
• Door to door delivery of UPB was carried out by some private sector UPB warehouse 
handlers in the instance where passengers were unable to return to Sri Lanka.  
7.2.  The COVID -19 pandemic outbreak has totally distressed entire communities since it is far 
diverse when compared with other historical contagions . The whole world is in a dilemma and waiting 
for any semblance of normalcy in order to rest art their day today life and re -open economies etc. 
Undeniably, this abrupt situation has inculcated numerous lessons to worldwide authorities on how 
to cope -up with nature and manage life with limited resources . However, there will not be any visible 
silver line, if we human beings are not willing to challenge and change the status quo and are still 
ignorant of the reality!  
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