Sri Lanka government relaxes import duty on potato and big onion

(November 01, 2010) Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade Anura Siriwardhana announced that the government has relaxed the import duty for potato and big onion.

Accordingly, the import tax for potato has been reduced to Rs. 10 per kilo from Rs. 30 per kilo earlier.

The import tax for big onion has also been reduced from Rs. 25 kilo earlier to Rs. 10 per kilo.

The government says the import taxes were imposed to sustain prices during the prices during the harvesting period of the local potato and big onion farmers.

The measure curbed the influx of imported cheap potato and big onion in the local market.

However, the importers of these commodities say that the market prices will not go down since the prices of potato and big onion have gone up in India.

Posted in big onion , potato