No More informal banking channels - Central Bank Governor

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka has decided to ban imports via “Open Account” in a move to crackdown on the illegal foreign exchange market, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe told a media briefing on Friday (29).

The Gazette will be out by next week, he added, noting that going forward imports will be allowed only on the basis of Letters of Credit (LCs), Documents against Payment (DP) or Documents against Acceptance (DA) terms.

"Any imports other than these three methods will not be cleared by the Customs," he said.

The move will help curtail the grey forex market as well as unofficial remittance channels such as Hawala or Undiyal which is a source to finance imports made in Open Account method, he said.