Customs Director General P. S. M.Charles refuted allegations of any influences on her from Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
She said that she was given the freedom to continue with her services in the Customs Department.
She made these observations addressing a press conference held at the Finance Ministry auditorium yesterday.
Charles further said that although the Customs took a great effort to achieve its revenue target for 2018, it could reach only 87 percent due to many reasons of one being leakages within Sri Lanka Customs.She added that investigations have been initiated already to find out the causes for these leakages in Sri Lanka Customs.She also added that the reports of the investigations would be handed over to Minister Mangala Samaraweera in two months.
Charles said another factor that prevented tax revenue collection at the Customs was the existing old laws. She said the Customs Act is not updated since it was formulated in 1867, and said that the news laws have to be implemented to increase tax collection.
She said further that another reason for being unable to reach the revenue target fixed for Customs was the 51 day period when the Custom’s revenue was affected immensely. She said that steps would be taken to increase Customs tax collection soon.
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