News
Palm oil importers lobbying govt. for pre-New Year tax revision
by Chaminda Silva
National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection (NMCRP) urged government last week to take immediate action to prevent a move by a group of businessmen to release coconut oil adulterated with palm oil to the market.
Addressing a press conference in Colombo on Friday, NMCRP President Ranjith Withanage said that the government had sometime back imposed an import tax on palm oil following exposure that it was being mixed with coconut oil. In the meantime the government also brought down import taxes on coconut oil.
“This prevented the businessmen adulterating coconut oil. Now there is a move by them to convince the government that there would be shortage of coconut oil in the market. They seek to import palm oil for mixing with coconut oil in view of increased demand during the Sinhala-Hindu new year period. The government should prevent this move,” he said.
Withanage said Sri Lanka used to import nearly 200,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia annually.
Coconuts accounts for approximately 12 per cent of all agricultural produce in Sri Lanka with the total area under cultivation covering 409,244 hectares producing about three billion nuts per year, he said. The country’s annual requirement is 4.9 billion nuts – 1.8 billion for consumption, 1.8 billion to mill coconut oil and 1.3 billion to be exported.
Usually the first couple of months of the year are considered the off season resulting in shortage of coconuts in the market. A group of businessmen is targeting that shortage to get the government to revise the tax.
It is claimed that palm oil is carcinogenic. For the sake of the health of consumers, we hope that the government would not give in to the businessmen lobbying for a tax revision,” Withanage added.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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