Sri Lanka Customs has completed the technical arrangements needed to switch to a fully electronic, paperless system for lodging customs declarations and related documents, and is moving to make that channel mandatory, the Presidential Secretariat said on Friday.
The shift was outlined at a stakeholder meeting at the Presidential Secretariat chaired by Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, with the Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce, associations representing customs clearing agents, Customs officials and the LankaSign digital signature service attending, the President’s Media Division said.
Dr. Kumanayake told the meeting that the business community no longer needs to submit documents to Customs in traditional printed format, and stressed that all customs declarations and supporting documents must in future be lodged exclusively through the paperless electronic system. Representatives of the Sri Lanka Chamber of Commerce extended their full support and pledged to run awareness programmes for members to ensure the rollout succeeds.
A central feature of the new framework is the mandatory use of a digital signature for electronic declarations. The signatures will be issued by LankaSign, which conducted a special awareness session at the meeting on the procedure for obtaining one. Importers, exporters and customs clearing agents will need to secure a digital signature before they can submit declarations under the new system.
Customs clearing agents told the meeting that some members were concerned about possible job losses from the transition, but acknowledged that the move to digital filings would lift the profession to a more efficient and professional standard, and pledged their backing for a swift rollout.
The paperless push lands alongside other recent trade-administration tightening, including the new Imports and Exports gazette requiring banks to share transaction-level import data with Customs and the customs and labour reforms framed in response to US tariff pressure.
