The Ministry of Cooperative Development has cleared the import of 25 essential consumer goods through state retailer Lanka Sathosa, Deputy Minister Upali Samarasekara said on Thursday.
The Deputy Minister said the import push is aimed at addressing concerns over product quality and at reducing the cost mark-ups incurred when essentials reach the consumer through layers of intermediaries, NewsFirst reported. The expectation, he said, is that direct sourcing will allow better-quality goods to reach customers at more affordable prices.
The list of 25 items, the sourcing routes and the rollout timeline were not detailed in the announcement. Lanka Sathosa operates the country’s largest state-owned consumer retail network and has periodically been used as the policy lever for price-stability interventions on essential goods.
The move lands at a moment of renewed pressure on import costs as the rupee selling rate breached Rs.340 again at multiple banks on Thursday, with the April fuel-import bill hitting USD 886 million and the Central Bank Governor warning earlier this week that headline inflation could climb back to 7 percent. It also follows the Rs.167 million Cooperative Development Fund loss flagged by COPA in mid-May, which raised questions about governance within the Cooperative Department’s network.
