News / Shippers cry foul as Sri Lanka government reneges on all-in rate rule

© Andrii Yalanskyi |

Shippers in Sri Lanka have raised serious concerns over government action to deregulate export/import freight pricing, ending all-in rates and bringing back surcharges.

Thanks to a legal framework enacted in 2013 and re-approved in 2017, since January 2014, exporters/importers needed to pay just an “all-in” freight rate and this antitrust legal immunity has been cancelled.

It is in line with a wave of policy reforms under way in Sri Lanka, arguably to reinvigorate foreign exchange flows after the island economy plunged into ...