The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

New Democratic Front· National List· 24 February 2025 ·Procedural: Ministerial Statement: Prime Minister Response on Colombo Port and Digital Economy

Infrastructure

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Hon. Ravi Karunanayake clarified that “24-hour” Customs operations should mean the ability to clear goods at all times, not merely to have staff working. He said Customs inquiries currently stop at 5.00 p.m. on Fridays and urged that clearance be enabled on Friday nights, weekends, and holidays. He noted that efforts from 2015 to 2020 had not fully achieved this and called for remaining resistance to be removed.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 “24 hours” means the ability to clear, not merely to work. When Customs begins inquiries, they stop at 5.00 p.m. Friday. The 24-hour concept means enabling clearance on Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and on holidays. We tried from 2015 to 2020 but couldn’t fully do it. Please remove the resistance that still exists.

Provenance

Source: Hansard, Monday, 24 February 2025 ·No. 1741236032093385 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 24 February 2025. No. 1741236032093385. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/11678