Sri Lanka Outward Remittance Limit Calculator

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka administers outward remittances through the Authorised Dealer (AD) framework set out in the Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017 and the operative CBSL Operations Manual on Outward Remittances. Your bank is the AD; for most transactions it processes the wire directly without separate CBSL approval, against a Form A declaration and the documents the category requires. The calculator follows the same eight-step routine an AD officer walks through:

1. Normalise the requested amount to LKR using the CBSL indicative rate snapshot, and to USD using the LKR-cross method (the same cross CBSL publishes daily).
2. Look up the per-category record for the selected purpose: authorised-dealer cap (USD), the threshold above which CBSL prior approval is required, any hard cap above which the remittance is not permitted, and the documents required for the AD's Form A.
3. Where a sub-purpose applies (Education has Tuition / Living / Application; Migration has Initial / Subsequent), substitute the sub-purpose's ceilings.
4. Annualise the requested amount if the frequency is Monthly or Annual, so per-year and lifetime caps are compared on a like-for-like basis with the request.
5. Decide the verdict: Within Authorised Dealer limit if the comparison value is at or below the AD cap (or no cap applies); Requires CBSL prior approval if it exceeds the AD cap but stays below any hard ceiling; Not permitted under current FX regulations if it exceeds the hard ceiling or the category is closed to ADs entirely (e.g. direct property purchase by a resident individual).
6. Compute the LKR cost. Principal = amount × indicative rate. Bank service charge from the median of eight licensed commercial banks, tiered by principal size. Stamp duty under the Stamp Duty (Special Provisions) Act at Rs 0.25 per Rs 1,000 of the rupee leg, rounded up. Foreign Exchange Levy if the current CBSL direction imposes one (0% as of 2026-05-16).
7. Compose the document checklist and the recommended source / destination account types. The right account matters — capital transactions move through a Capital Transactions Rupee Account (CTRA), outward investments through an Outward Investment Account (OIA), and most current-account wires from a regular LKR account or a Personal / Business Foreign Currency Account.
8. Show the form reference. Standard wires use Form A (the outward remittance declaration). Above-cap requests need a CBSL Department of Foreign Exchange approval letter on top of the Form A.

The verdict text deliberately never says "approved". The actual remittance is the AD's decision under its own due-diligence policies — anti-money-laundering checks, KYC on the beneficiary, the bank's internal credit and reputation review. What this tool delivers is the published-framework eligibility you can plan around before you walk into the branch, so you do not learn mid-process that your request needs CBSL approval and weeks of delay.

Why most categories are uncapped via the AD

The 2017 Foreign Exchange Act significantly liberalised current-account transactions — education, medical treatment, family maintenance, software and intangible-service imports, business travel wires to foreign suppliers — and the post-2017 Gazettes turned the AD into the regulator's delegate for the routine flow. The remaining ceilings concentrate in capital-account transactions: migration of residence, family settlement, outward investment, and property purchase abroad. That is why the calculator splits its categories along this axis. A USD 35,000 tuition payment by a parent is unlimited via the AD because it is current-account; a USD 35,000 outward investment is governed by the USD 200,000 annual OIA cap and must go through an Outward Investment Account.

Stamp duty on Form A — what to expect

Stamp duty under the Stamp Duty (Special Provisions) Act No. 12 of 2006 attaches to the Form A as an instrument. The rate is Rs 0.25per Rs 1,000 of the LKR-equivalent remittance value, rounded up to the next rupee. That works out to 0.025% — small in proportion, but the absolute value scales with the principal: Rs 96 on a LKR 384,000 SaaS payment, Rs 1,707 on a LKR 6.8 million tuition wire, Rs 28,000 on a LKR 112 million migration disbursement. The calculator surfaces this line separately and reconciles it against the IRD millage formula so the figure shown is auditable. Some banks bundle stamp duty into a single "service charge" — ask for the itemised breakdown if your wire is large.

What the calculator does not include

This is an outward-remittance eligibility tool, not a tax estimator and not a foreign-receiver tool. It does not model destination-country taxes (e.g. UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on a property purchase, US withholding on investment income); it does not generate or sign the Form A on your behalf; it does not track how much you have already remitted this year against an annual cap — for that, keep your own ledger or ask the AD to pull your remittance history under the Right to Information request. For the inward direction (foreign currency arriving in Sri Lanka), use the USD-LKR earnings calculator for freelancer receipts, and the bank branch code finder for SWIFT routing numbers.

Edge cases handled deliberately

Three edge cases are worth flagging. (1) Migration at exactly USD 250,000 returns Within Authorised Dealer limit — the boundary is inclusive. One rupee above the boundary tips the verdict to CBSL approval. (2) Donations at exactly USD 10,000 are within the AD cap; one dollar above flips to CBSL approval, which surprises a lot of philanthropic remitters. (3) Property purchases always return Requires CBSL prior approvalat any amount, because there is no AD framework for direct property purchase by a resident individual — the OIA route is the only path, and that needs a specific approval letter. The verdict never says "approved" in any case: the AD's decision under its own due diligence is final.

Three scenarios that map to the most common Sri Lankan outward remittance paths, worked end-to-end at the 2026-05-16 CBSL indicative-rate snapshot. Try plugging each combination into the calculator above — the cost breakdown should match the steps below to the rupee.

Median outward-remittance service commission for a mid-tier wire (principal between LKR 500,000 and LKR 10,000,000) at eight licensed commercial banks, taken from their published service-charge guides on 2026-05-16. SWIFT correspondent charges are included where the bank publishes a bundled rate. Use this as a planning estimate and confirm the actual fee at your branch — the AD's tariff card carries the contractual figure.

Indicative rates used by the calculator (LKR per unit of currency, CBSL daily indicative on 2026-05-16): USD 320, GBP 400, EUR 345, AUD 195, INR 3.85, SGD 235, CAD 232, JPY 2.1.

• Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017 (full text, CBSL)
• CBSL — Foreign Exchange Regulations & Operations Manual on Outward Remittances
• CBSL Department of Foreign Exchange — official page
• CBSL — daily indicative exchange rates
• Inland Revenue Department — Stamp Duty (Special Provisions) Act

Per-category caps and Form A document lists reconciled to the authoritative CBSL sources on 2026-05-16. The FX-rate snapshot is the CBSL indicative rate published for 2026-05-16. The bank-fee figures are the median across BoC, ComBank, HNB, NSB, NTB, Sampath, Seylan, and NDB's published service-charge guides on the same date. The page is reviewed monthly and within 48 hours of any new CBSL circular.