Sri Lanka, July 5 -- Colombo, July 05 (Daily Mirror)- Consumers are facing absurd costs for items purchased through e-commerce platforms after the Sri Lanka Customs had scrambled to revert to HS code-based taxation without a proper framework, Chair of the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) Dr. Harsha De Silva said.

He said in a statement posted on X that an item of Rs. 500 can incur Rs. 37,000 in charges.

"On June 3, 2025, our COPF inquiry exposed Customs' informal weight-based tax system for e-commerce, which lacked legal backing for years. The government's inaction allowed platforms like Temu to flood our market with untaxed bulk imports, undercutting local SMEs and taking undue advantage of the loopholes in the law. Then, when this p...