Bombshell on BOI investors

AFTER 25 years of failed lobbying, Sri Lanka Customs (SLC) is using the Government's two-thirds power and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program to discreetly creep into an area that was considered much-needed trade facilitation and speed for Board of Investment (BOI) investors on special economic zones.

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The Government has dropped a bomb on BOI investors as published in the July 2025 report of the IMF, where Sri Lankan authorities have agreed to transfer functions of import/export clearance from the BOI to SLC by October, citing “possible revenue leakage,” but have failed to publish a report of proof. This was never an area in the original commitments made to the IMF and takes Sri Lanka out of competition for investment compared to major hubs like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and even other Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracting destinations, such as Vietnam and India, who are establishing special economic zones to facilitate global trade.

In Sri Lanka, the BOI trade facilitation systems were introduced more than three decades ago to support investment in special Free Trade Zones and, in the recent past, to establish free port operations following global best practices, special economic zones to provide manufacturers and reexport-ers the opportunity to fast-track clearance and export processing to be competitive in global supply chains, and to avoid archived laws that lead to corruption.