Moving back to Sri Lanka

***

[moderated: no free ad on the forum please, post your ad in the Housing in Sri Lanka section.]

Thanks Nishan,

When the time and need comes I will contact you.
Greetings for the season

ca2ca

There are lot of information on the webpage -srilanka customs. My view is if a person is comming as a permanent resident and want to bring used personal items applicable tax should be the same as Sri Lankan. It is advisable to communicate with customs direct or though a customs clearing  agent.
I lived overseas for a long term and cleared  my personal effects recently , through E B Creasy -Sri Lanka .

Thanks Manel for info. Yes I did write to SL customs but as expected no reply. Anyhow I have decided/arranged with a guy in Germany who haul,ship and taking care of custom in a package. No sweat.
There are differences between with passport holders. A SL holder gets a certain duty free amount but a foreign passport holder is liable for duty.

Have a nice day

Manel,

Pls. state your correct e-mail address. A mail bounced back.

***

Yes, Sri Lankan get a duty free allowance, for certain items only.
But when Sri Lankan moves the used personal effects home , SL customs  make decisions after scanning the container. Try send me an e mail again.

We literally went through hell with customs when we moved our personal goods from Dubai to Sri Lanka some years back.

It is very important that you do try and sort this out before you ship your goods.

You mention "moving back to Sri Lanka", do you mean that you have lived here before?

On what basis will you be able to reside here for your retirement?  Do you have any B.O.I. or other type of Residence Permit?

If so, they would be able to guide you and tell you how to do this without much headache.

In our case, they were asking for many thousands of dollars, perhaps as much as what our USED goods were worth, until we finally got a hold of a Government officer and he negotiated the duty sum down to less than one thousand and we finally had our stuff cleared.

After that, we found out that most of the Customs Clearance Companies, even the large ones, have very little reliable contacts at customs, and you really need someone who can work miracles for you, and we got to know about a smaller company made up of ex-customs staff who can substantially reduce the payable amount, I think the name was AKV or something, I will try and find you the exact name and contact details soon.

Hope you don't have to go through the headache that we were subjected to!

Best Wishes, Sam & Sheena.

Thanks Sam & Sheena,

Its unfortunate what you have experienced at the SL customs. I have heard and read about what difficulties some people have to go through. Specially poor folk returning from middle east, genuine law bind people and foreigners who are willing to live in Sri Lanka. But if you know a politician or an influential person, its a matter of a telephone call. This is a part of Miracle of Asia.  Sad and will never changed.

Yes I was born in SL and returning after 45 years. And I am not obliged to duty free allowance.Neither a BOI permit. I have to apply for a annual staying permit after my arrival. Dual citizenship which is cancelled now, is also an option.

I'll bring my used household items and nothing luxury (except my TV) and hope things go smoothly as I too have arranged an agency to take care of clearances. Will see how things go for me. Wish you both a happy stay in SL.

Best regards

Ca2ca