Sri Lanka Customs Baggage Allowance Calculator (BIA)

Sri Lanka Customs publish a Personal Baggage Allowance schedule that keys each arriving passenger to one duty-free concession in LKR. The calculator above looks up your concession, converts your declared item values to rupees, and runs the standard tariff stack on the excess — exactly the build-up applied at the Red Channel at Bandaranaike International Airport.

1. Look up the duty-free concession. The schedule keys the LKR concession off passport, duration abroad and trip purpose. The currently published bands include short-visit returnees (~Rs 12,500), medium-stay (~Rs 75,000), long-term employment (~Rs 175,000) and returning students / permanent returnees (~Rs 250,000). Foreign passport holders on a tourist arrival receive the short-visit concession.
2. Convert your declared items to LKR. declaredLkr = (personalEffectsUsd + electronicsUsd) × fxRate. Customs use the Central Bank of Sri Lanka middle rate on the arrival date.
3. Compute the dutiable balance. dutiable = max(0, declaredLkr − concessionLkr). If the dutiable balance is zero, no levies apply on goods.
4. Apply the tariff stack on the dutiable balance. Order is statutory and matters — each levy compounds on the previous total:
   • CID = 15% × Dutiable
   • PAL = 10% × (Dutiable + CID)
   • CESS = 15% × Dutiable (electronics declared)
   • VAT = 18% × (Dutiable + CID + PAL + CESS)
5. Check the gold allowance. Female passengers may carry up to 50 g of personal gold jewellery duty-free; male passengers up to 20 g. Excess grams attract roughly Rs 20,000 per gram of compounded duty (CIF-equivalent + PAL + VAT bundled).
6. Foreign currency declaration. Under the Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017, you must complete a Foreign Currency Declaration form at arrival if you are carrying foreign currency notes equal to or above USD 15,000. Failure to declare is treated as an exchange-control offence.
7. Restricted-items check.One mobile phone and one laptop are bundled inside the LKR concession for personal use. Tobacco of any kind is fully dutiable. Up to 1.5 L of spirits and 2 L of wine fit inside an adult passenger's liquid allowance.

As an internal sanity check the calculator runs the same dutiable total through a closed-form identity — Total = D × X × (1 + VAT) − D where X = 1 + CID + PAL × (1 + CID) + CESS — and surfaces a warning if the step-by-step and compounded forms disagree. The full passenger-category and tariff tables live in a single typed module so updating a Director General's Order is a one-file change.

Important caveat.Sri Lanka Customs concession amounts can change by Director General's Order without much warning. Customs may also reassess your declared CIF at the wharf. Treat the headline figure here as a budgeting estimate, build a 5-10% buffer into your travel plan, and verify the live concession against customs.gov.lk before you board.

Values are the most recently published Personal Baggage Allowance concessions and are subject to revision by Director General's Order. Cross-checked 2026-05-16.

• Sri Lanka Customs — Passenger Clearance & Baggage portal
• Sri Lanka Customs — official site
• Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017 (CBSL)
• Inland Revenue Department — Value Added Tax (Act No. 14 of 2002)
• Ports and Airports Development Levy Act No. 18 of 2011
• Sri Lanka Customs — National Imports Tariff Guide (HS-coded duty rates)

The concession amounts, currency threshold and tariff rates on this page were last cross-checked against the Sri Lanka Customs and CBSL source documents on 2026-05-16. The page is reviewed after each Budget speech and whenever a new Director General's Order is gazetted. Before depending on a number for a real arrival, verify against the live Customs page.