Budget schedules selected food-levy cuts and sugar increase for November 13

November 13 update: Treasury order confirms product-specific rates

The Treasury's 2026 gazette index now lists order 2514/31 dated November 12, and its linked English schedule has been read directly. It sets the Special Commodity Levy at Rs 10/kg for sprats under HS 0305.54.10 and Maldive fish and substitutes under HS 0305.59.10. This verifies an implementing order beyond the earlier Budget announcement; it does not extend the cut to every dried-fish classification.

The schedule distinguishes dried chillies neither crushed nor ground, HS 0904.21.10, at Rs 50/kg from crushed or ground chillies, HS 0904.22.10, and the listed other crushed/ground line, HS 0904.22.90, at Rs 75/kg. Simplified news accounts saying all these chilli lines are Rs 50/kg do not match that schedule. The listed sugar lines carry Rs 60/kg. Product classification matters for an actual import assessment.

The signed order commences on November 13, 2026 and runs to December 31, 2027, subject to the Act's stated provisions. It rescinds the earlier specified order for the listed commodities from November 13. These import levies do not set the retail price of a packet or guarantee that every shop has already passed on a saving. The earlier account below records what had been verified at that stage; its statement that a new order had not yet been checked is superseded by this update.

Sri Lanka's Budget announces targeted import-levy changes for sprats, Maldive fish and dried chillies, with November 13, 2026 given as the scheduled start. The English speech copy hosted by the published report specifies sprats, rather than every kind of dried fish. It proposes cutting the Special Commodity Levy on imported sprats from Rs 100 to Rs 10 per kilogram and on Maldive fish from Rs 302 to Rs 10 per kilogram. The published report's broader dried-fish wording should not be treated as proof that every dried-fish tariff line receives the same reduction.

The proposed change for powdered and whole dried chillies is a reduction of Rs 50 per kilogram, not a new flat levy of Rs 50. Separately, the speech annex proposes increasing the Special Commodity Levy on imported sugar by Rs 10 per kilogram. EconomyNext reports the same distinction. These are changes to an import levy, not announced shop prices or a promise that each household will receive a payment equal to the tax reduction.

The Customs import-tariff page checked for this report still links to a consolidated levy chart dated November 3, 2026. That older chart lists the previous sprats and Maldive-fish rates. It does not by itself confirm a newly gazetted November 13 rate. This report has read the Budget speech copy and news accounts but has not verified a fresh implementing order or Customs assessment applying the new rates. Importers should check the current legal instrument and product classification before calculating a shipment's liability.

The stated aim is to ease living-cost pressure through selected food-levy cuts, while the sugar increase is presented as support for local producers. The wider package is therefore not an across-the-board removal of taxes on essential foods. Retail pass-through, stock already bought under earlier rates and final consumer prices are not established here. The speech PDF is a news-outlet-hosted copy, not independently authenticated against a Treasury download. The photograph is a dried-fish market in Digha, India, used for illustration, not a Sri Lankan shop or evidence of a new local price.