Sri Lanka Customs collected 125.2 billion rupees in the first 14 days of July, surpassing 65 percent of its monthly revenue target with more than two weeks still to run, EconomyNext reported, citing official data.
The department’s July target is 192.4 billion rupees. Having already beaten its monthly goal for six consecutive months, Customs is on course to outperform for a seventh straight month. It has now reached 68.2 percent of its full-year target through July 14.
Officials attribute the strong run to tighter enforcement, improved valuation practices and a rebound in import volumes, alongside faster container clearance using digital scanning to curb corruption and speed up processing. Stricter monitoring of under-invoicing and misdeclaration has also lifted collections.
Customs collected a record 2,551 billion rupees in 2025, beating a revised target of 2,241 billion rupees. Its 2026 target has been set lower, at 2,207 billion rupees — down 13.5 percent — in anticipation of a fall in vehicle imports. The buoyant collections offer a useful cushion as the government works to meet fiscal targets under its IMF-supported programme, building on tax revenue that had reached half the annual goal by mid-June.
