Sri Lanka, June 6 -- The sugar importers have urged President and Finance Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake not to increase the existing sugar import tax, warning that it would lead to a steep rise in prices and cause serious disruptions in the market.

An importer said that currently, the tax on imported sugar stands at Rs.50 per kilo - a rate that was originally imposed during the previous government. Before that, the tax had been as low as 25 cents per kilo. According to industry sources, Sri Lanka imports about 60,000 metric tonnes (MT) of sugar every month, generating around Rs.3 billion in government revenue through the existing tax.

They claimed that the current tax rate was introduced to protect local sugar manufacturing compani...