Foreign Exchange Act 2017 · As enacted
8. Regulation of certain transactions
Official English translation. Where it differs from the Sinhala or Tamil text, the Act itself says which text prevails.
Official translationFrom Department of Government Printing, unchanged
A person in, or resident in, Sri Lanka shall–
export from Sri Lanka or import into Sri Lanka, any foreign currency or Sri Lanka currency;
hold foreign exchange in his possession or in a bank account in Sri Lanka, only for such purpose, up to such limits and subject to such terms and conditions, as may be prescribed by the Minister by an Order published in the Gazette.
A person in, or resident in, Sri Lanka shall acquire a foreign asset from foreign exchange derived from the conversion of Sri Lanka currency or the disposal or conversion of an asset within Sri Lanka or provision of any service in or from Sri Lanka only for such purposes, up to such limits and subject to such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Minister by regulations made in that behalf.
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the provisions of any other written law, any Sri Lankan citizen resident in Sri Lanka who remits to Sri Lanka any foreign exchange which have not been declared to the Commissioner
General of Inland Revenue or the Head of the Department of
Foreign Exchange before the appointed date and which are not the property in respect of which proceedings are pending in a court of law or an order has been made by a court of law under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, No. 5 of 2006, Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing
Act, No. 25 of 2005 or the Bribery Act (Chapter 26) shall be liable to pay only a remittance fee of one per centum to the
Commissioner General of Inland Revenue and shall not be subject to the payment of any other fee, tax, surcharge, levy or penalty:
Provided that any such person who remits to Sri Lanka foreign exchange not exceeding the value of one million
United States dollars held outside Sri Lanka shall not be liable to pay the remittance fee or any other tax, surcharge, levy or penalty and any amount remitted exceeding such value shall be liable to pay the remittance fee specified in subsection (3):
Provided further that any such person who remits to
Sri Lanka an amount of foreign exchange exceeding the value of one million United States dollars held outside
Sri Lanka and invests in a development bond issued by the
Government of Sri Lanka shall not be liable to pay the remittance fee or any other tax, surcharge, levy or penalty.
Foreign Exchange held outside Sri Lanka and remitted to Sri Lanka after the appointed date under subsection (3)
may be held in a foreign currency account or may be converted into Sri Lanka rupees.
The property referred to in subsection (3) shall not be deemed to be the property obtained by the commission of an offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,
No. 5 of 2006 even if such foreign exchange had been held outside Sri Lanka without the permission of the Central
Bank.
There shall be no restriction on the repatriation of funds out of Sri Lanka remitted to Sri Lanka by any person in terms of subsection (3) of section 8.