The state has also lifted a custom import duty charged on imported lorry bodies and tyres for lorries and busses by 50 percent, the finance ministry said. It was not clear what the existing tax rates were.

Sri Lanka's customs office in a statement posted on its website said from January 01, value added taxes on buses, lorries and trucks were also lifted giving effect to a proposal on the 2012 budget.

Other items from which value added taxes were lifted, raw material used for spectacles and frames, sunglasses, perfumes, sports equipment, speakers and digital cinema equipment, photo sensitive semiconductor devices.

Value added tax on spares for poultry industry, sawn wood, mammoties, forks, moulding (steel, glass, rubber, plastic), machinery for rubber and plastic industries, greenhouses and poly tunnels.