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‘Unaccompanied baggage’ at Customs turns out to be goods with NOLIMIT tags!

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Customs officials have seized a stock of goods that were found to be imported after providing authorities with false information.

It is said that the goods, worth over Rs. 200 million, have been brought into the country as ‘unaccompanied baggage’ in two 40ft. containers and were seized upon a tipoff.

However, despite the paperwork claiming the goods to be as such, footwear with tags of the popular retail line – ‘NOLIMIT’ as well as perfume, were found in one container.

In the other container, more goods for trading, such as footwear, cosmetics, perfume, pet food, clothes, dried and pieced turmeric as well as chocolates were found, reports say.

Although authorities had informed the relevant addresses on the paperwork, the containers remain unclaimed so far.

Since the cosmetics and perfumes have been imported without the permission of the NMRA, they will be confiscated and destroyed in the future, Customs add.

Noting that the goods have been imported in this manner with the objective of reaping massive profits, Customs officials point out that the raid had prevented a case of massive tax evasion.

The containers were inspected by Deputy Minister of Economic Development – Prof. Anil Jayantha Fernando yesterday (Jan. 27). He was accompanied by several officials including Secretary to the President – Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, Director General of Customs – Sarath Nonis, as well as Additional Director General of Customs and media spokesman – Seevali Arukgoda.

According to reports from Customs, 03 more such containers are to be inspected and necessary legal action to be taken.

Customs sources also say that several large scale clothing retailers have been charged with evading taxes.In a local context, ‘unaccompanied baggage’ refers to personal items that a traveler is bringing into Sri Lanka but are not physically carried with them at the time of their arrival. The goods, shipped separately, must arrive within a specific time frame after the person’s arrival to be considered for duty-free clearance as personal belongings.

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Adani decides to withdraw from wind energy project in SL

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Adani Green Energy has decided to withdraw from its proposed wind energy project in Mannar, Sri Lanka.
The company has conveyed this decision in a letter addressed to the chairman of Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment.

“It was learnt that another Cabinet appointed negotiations committee and Project Committee would be constituted to renegotiate the project proposal,” the company wrote in a letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, addressed to the chairman of Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment.

“This aspect was deliberated at the Board of our company and it was decided that while the company fully respects the sovereign rights of Sri Lanka and its choices, it would respectfully withdraw from the said project,” the letter added.

Adani Green Energy is a part of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s Adani Group.

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Coca-Cola says it may use more plastic due to Trump tariffs

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Coca-Cola may have to sell more drinks in plastic bottles in the US if President Donald Trump’s tariffs end up making aluminium cans more expensive, the company’s chief executive, James Quincey, said in a call with investors.

It comes after Trump ordered a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the US, which could end up driving up the price of canned food and drink items in the country.

In December, the beverage giant scaled down its sustainability target of using 50% recycled materials in its packaging by 2030, to using 35% to 40% by 2035.

Environmental groups have labelled Coca-Cola as the “top global plastic polluter” for six consecutive years.

“If one package suffers some increase in input costs, we continue to have other packaging offerings that will allow us to compete in the affordability space,” Quincey said.

“For example, if aluminium cans become more expensive, we can put more emphasis on PET [plastic] bottles”.

The Coca-Cola boss also sought to minimise the impact of the tariffs on his business saying packaging is only a relatively small component of his company’s costs.

In recent years, Coca-Cola had been selling more products in aluminium containers as part of its marketing and sustainability strategies.

Despite being generally more expensive, aluminium cans are also a lot more recyclable than plastic bottles over time.

The US imports almost half of the aluminium it uses, according to the United States Geological Survey, so a 25% tariff on all imports is likely to cause cans to become even more costly.

After Trump first ordered tariffs on steel in 2018, many can-makers won “exclusions” from those import taxes.

But this time, Trump has said there will be no exemptions from the rules either for individual products or for particular countries.

In a separate move that is likely to contribute to plastic pollution, Trump signed an executive order earlier this week ending a US government effort to replace plastic straws with paper.

The order reversed a measure signed by former President Joe Biden, who had called plastic pollution a “crisis”.

(BBC News)

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Litro Gas prices unchanged for February

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Channa Gunawardena, the Chairman of Litro Gas Company, has confirmed that the prices of domestic LP gas cylinders will remain unchanged for the month of February 2025.

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