Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila said today that local producers who are struggling to survive will lose their markets with the lifting of the import ban on 240 items on July 19.
He said that the ban on the import of non-essential items includes cut flowers, flower buds, vegetables, and almost all fruits.
“Sri Lanka being a country with the highest biodiversity in the world, why should we encourage importing flowers? The worst part is that fruits and vegetables are included in the list. Carrot, beet, leeks, onion, garlic, cabbage, salad leaves, pumpkin, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, manioc, and what not The list further contains almost all fruits cultivated in Sri Lanka”, Gammanpila said.
He added that all these vegetables and fruits are easily cultivable in Sri Lanka. “There was another list of 243 items, of which the ban was lifted on June 9th. It contains commodities such as bottled water and yoghurt,”, he said.
He said that the government’s excuse is that it is bound by the IMF Agreement to relax import restrictions. “The IMF suggests relaxing import restrictions step by step within a period of four years, not abruptly within a period of four months. The Government has not taken any steps to make the domestic economy strong”, he said.
