The directive also includes individuals who provide professional, vocational, occupational or business services overseas. Sri Lanka is over-regulating the foreign exchange sector by ordering to convert all or most foreign earnings into rupees, and this could also affect billions of dollars in remittances by migrant workers, according to experts. This will only aggravate the chronic foreign exchange crisis facing the country. The Central Bank (CB) directive to convert all foreign exchange earnings to rupees with effect from November 1, is also expected to affect FDI (foreign direct investments) and global rankings as a ‘business friendly nation’. That has a huge impact on export earnings and a general reluctance by some exporters and also professional service providers to bring back their earnings,” said a financial expert at a large export venture.

Source: Sunday Times November 07, 2021 00:33 UTC