Sri Lanka Set to Create AEO Program for Low-Risk Importers

Sri Lanka looks set to create an authorized economic operator (AEO) program to provide expedited customs clearance for low-risk importers. The country’s 2019 budget proposal, presented in the Sri Lankan parliament March 5, includes provisions on the new AEO program, as well as on changes to Sri Lanka’s “port and airport development levy,” KPMG said in a client alert. Among those changes are new exemptions from the levy for alfalfa meal and pellets for the livestock industry and goods imported for construction of large projects, as well as a reduction in the levy for certain high-tech plant, machinery and equipment, the firm said.