Sri Lanka Customs will introduce a paperless Customs Declaration System from 1 October, and briefed representatives of the International Monetary Fund on the plan at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.
The discussion was held under the patronage of Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake. Officials from Sri Lanka Customs and the Revenue Administration Reform and Modernisation Bureau set out the implementation plan, the awareness programmes being run ahead of the switch, and the department’s technical readiness.
The IMF representatives acknowledged the work done by both institutions and said they were willing to provide support for the rollout.
Who was in the room
Attending were Seevali Arukgoda, Senior Additional Secretary of the Revenue Administration Reform and Modernisation Bureau, and Customs Director General Wimal Liyanagama, along with senior officials from both bodies. The IMF was represented by Dinar Prihardini and Klakow Akepannidtaworn.
What the system changes
Under the new arrangement, importers and businesses submit Customs documentation electronically rather than on paper. Reporting elsewhere on the project — including coverage of an awareness programme run for importers by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce — describes the mechanism as the integration of LankaSign digital signatures with the ASYCUDA Customs management system, so that declarations carry legal validity when filed online. That account is noted here as background; its publication date could not be independently established, and it is not relied on for the facts above.
The Daily Mirror’s report does not describe the technical design, and gives no figure for the volume of declarations processed annually or the expected saving in clearance time.
Why the IMF is being briefed
Customs modernisation sits inside the revenue administration workstream of Sri Lanka’s IMF programme, alongside tax administration and measures to broaden the tax base. An IMF team is currently in the country: the mission arrived on 10 September and the Fund has publicly defended its revenue-based approach to fiscal consolidation during the visit.
The briefing also follows a period of scrutiny at the department itself. An internal probe by the Special Investigation Unit into an incident at the Colombo Port is among the matters the department has been dealing with this month.
Still not reported
The Daily Mirror does not say whether the 1 October start is mandatory for all declarations or phased, what happens to traders who are not ready, or whether paper filing remains available as a fallback. It does not report what form the IMF’s offered support would take, whether the system has been piloted, or how the change interacts with the broader national single window for trade.
Update, 23 September: launch confirmed
Sri Lanka Customs will officially launch the system on 1 October at the Sri Lanka Customs Auditorium in Colombo, the Daily Mirror reported, describing it as the department’s first paperless customs declaration system.
Declarations and supporting documents will be submitted and processed electronically, cutting reliance on physical documents, manual handling and the movement of paper files. Customs says it expects faster processing, better transparency and document traceability, fewer administrative delays, and more effective risk-based controls, revenue protection and trade facilitation.
The department credited its own officers and technical teams, other government institutions, the trading community, Customs brokers and logistics partners with making the switch possible.
The central open question above is still open. This account confirms the date and the venue but again does not say whether electronic filing becomes mandatory on 1 October or is phased in, nor what provision exists for traders who are not ready. No verified newsroom has reported the answer.
Update, 24 September: second outlet confirms
The Daily FT carried the same Customs announcement, matching the 1 October date and the Customs Auditorium venue. Its account adds that the system will support risk-based controls under which inspections focus on higher-risk consignments rather than all shipments, and that Customs frames the change as contributing to a more environmentally sustainable working environment and to the wider move towards digital government services.
It does not answer the mandatory-versus-phased question either.
Update, 1 October: live, and mandatory from today
The system came into effect on 1 October, and the open question above is now answered: it is a hard cutoff, not a phase-in.
Customs Spokesperson Chandana Punchihewa said Sri Lanka Customs will no longer accept declarations submitted under the previous system from today, NewsFirst reported. All importers and declarants are now required to submit their declarations and supporting documents with a valid digital signature.
NewsFirst frames the switch as part of the government’s economic reform programme and its wider push to modernise public services through digitalisation, with Customs expecting a faster, more efficient and more transparent clearance process.
That resolves the mandatory-versus-phased question, but not the second half of it: neither NewsFirst nor any other verified newsroom has reported what provision, if any, exists for traders who are not yet able to file with a digital signature.
The launch ceremony, and a feature not previously reported
Two further accounts of the switch — the Daily Mirror, filed at 10:12 a.m. on 1 October, and Xinhua — add the detail of the launch itself.
The official ceremony was held at 10 a.m. at the Sri Lanka Customs Auditorium, under the patronage of Deputy Minister of Economic Development Nishantha Jayaweera and Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake — the same official who set the 1 October date back in July. Both accounts confirm the system is run jointly by Sri Lanka Customs and the Revenue Administration Reforms and Modernisation Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat, and that declarations filed under the old system are not accepted from today.
Both also surface a capability that earlier official coverage of the launch had left out: the system detects any change made to a document after a digital signature has been applied. Authorities expect this to strengthen document security and cut opportunities for fraud and corruption in the clearance process. That mechanism is not new to the programme — Dr. Kumanayake described the same anti-tampering benefit when he announced the date in July — but it had not featured in the launch-day accounts until now.
Neither account addresses the readiness question CHATA raised on 24 September, and neither gives a figure for expected savings in clearance time or dwell time — the metric the clearing agents’ association argued the rollout should be judged on. Nor does either answer what happens to a trader who cannot yet file with a valid digital signature.
A note on names: the Daily Mirror renders the deputy minister’s surname “Jayaveera” and Xinhua “Jayaweera”. This is a transliteration split, not two people.
