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Economic Development Deputy Minister Prof.Anil Jayantha Fernando told Parliament yesterday (22) that a full scale investigation is currently being conducted regarding the incident where 323 containers with red tags have been cleared by the Sri Lanka Customs after scanning.
In response to a question raised by MP Chaminda Wijesiri, the Deputy Minister Development said that there have been previous instances where containers bearing red tags have been cleared after scanning by the Customs Department.
He said that in the past there have been instances where containers without red tags have gone through the Green channel and it is unknown if investigations were carried out on those incidents.
The Deputy Minister said that there have been seven instances in the past especially on July 25, 2024, where 584 containers similar to these have been cleared by the Customs Department.
Deputy Minister Fernando stressed that these 323 containers were having red tags and not green channel and the idea has been expressed that they have been cleared by Customs by scanning in order to minimise the congestion created by the uncleared containers.
Varuna Dayaratne
