The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, at its meeting held on 08 September 2021, decided to impose a 100 per cent cash margin deposit requirement against the importation of selected goods of non-essential/non-urgent nature made under Letters of Credit and Documents against Acceptance terms with Licensed Commercial Banks and National Savings Bank, with immediate effect. The decision to impose the cash margin deposit requirement is expected to support the ongoing efforts to preserve the stability of the exchange rate and foreign currency market liquidity, particularly by discouraging excessive imports of speculative nature.

A summary of product categories that are subjected to cash margin deposit requirements, along with information on import expenditure under each category in 2019, 2020 and thus far in 2021 (provisional), is given in the Table below.