Sri Lanka Customs
The Sri Lanka Customs is a non-ministerial government department, which performs the duties of collecting customs duties and other taxes and levies in Sri Lanka, under the oversight of the Ministry of Finance. The executive responsible is the director general, currently Major General Vijitha Ravipriya, appointed in February 2020.
Formally known as HM Ceylon Customs from 1947 to 1972, the department can trace its roots to 1806. Formally, the agency as it exists today was formed under the Customs Ordinance No. 17 of 1869, to which 51 amendments have been made to date. Being a center for trade in the Indian Ocean since antiquity, however, the history of collection of customs duties in Sri Lanka dates far back as 2nd century BC.
The department works with the powers vested under the Customs Ordinance, as well as through several other related enactments. The major functions of the department include the collection of government revenue as customs duty and other levies on behalf of several other government authorities and securing the nation's ports of entry with relation to the import and export of both commercial and personal goods. As such, it has limited policing powers, such as in the areas of the arrest and detention of possible suspects contravening customs and import/export laws, as well as the confiscation of contraband.
