Sri Lanka TV Import Tax Calculator (2026)

A complete television arriving in Sri Lanka is classified under HS heading 8528.72 (reception apparatus for television, colour). A finished TV is a consumer-electronics good, so it carries both a positive Customs Import Duty and a Cess on top of the usual import levies. Every charge stacks on the CIF (Cost + Insurance + Freight) declared on your invoice, applied in this statutory order:

1. Customs Import Duty (CID) = CIF × 15% — the HS 8528.72 General Duty Rate for a finished TV.
2. Cess = CIF × 15% — the ad-valorem Cess levied on finished consumer electronics under this heading.
3. PAL (Ports & Airports Development Levy) = CIF × 10% under PAL Act No. 18 of 2011.
4. Duty Surcharge = CID × 0% — a surcharge on the Customs Duty that only applies when specifically gazetted; it is currently 0%.
5. VAT = (CIF + CID + Cess + PAL + Surcharge) × 18% — the IRD's current VAT rate on the duty-inclusive base.
6. SSCL (Social Security Contribution Levy) = the same duty-inclusive base × 2.5%, under SSCL Act No. 25 of 2022. SSCL and VAT sit side by side on that base; they do not stack on each other.

The shortcut formula

Because VAT and SSCL both feed off the same duty-inclusive base, the six ad-valorem charges collapse into a single multiplier on CIF. At HS 8528.72 rates that multiplier is CIF × 0.6870 (68.70%). Multiply your CIF in rupees by that number and you have the import tax. The module exposes both methods — calculateTvImportTax walks the line items so you can audit the working, while calculateTotalTaxByMultiplier gives the one-shot answer — and both agree to the rupee.

Why baggage does not help with a TV

The import mode does not change the tax on a television. Sri Lanka Customs treats a TV as a dutiable good rather than a personal effect, so it is excluded from the duty-free personal-baggage allowance. A set carried in accompanied baggage from the Gulf pays exactly the same CID, Cess, PAL, VAT and SSCL as one shipped by courier — you simply declare it at the red channel and settle the duty at the airport. The toggle in the calculator is there to make this explicit: pick either mode and the tax is identical; courier just adds separate freight to the CIF.

Edge cases the calculator handles

A CIF of zero returns zero tax with no divide-by-zero in the effective-rate figure. A negative or non-numeric price is clamped to zero rather than producing NaN. Non-LKR prices are converted at the exchange rate you enter before any tax is applied, matching the order Customs uses on its own worksheet. The optional local-retail field never affects the tax — it only compares the landed cost against what a shop charges. Quantities above 50 fall outside scope, because a shipment that large is a commercial import that Customs values case by case.

Three scenarios that reconcile to the Customs tariff line by line. Plug each set of inputs into the calculator above — the breakdown table should match these steps to the rupee.

• Sri Lanka Customs — National Import Tariff Guide 2024 (HS 8528.72, colour televisions)
• Sri Lanka Customs — Personal Baggage Allowance (a TV is not a duty-free item)
• IRD — Value Added Tax (current rate)
• IRD — Social Security Contribution Levy (SSCL Act No. 25 of 2022)

The rates above were last cross-checked against the cited sources on 2026-07-08. The schedule is reviewed after every budget speech and whenever a new PAL, VAT or Cess gazette is published. If you spot a mismatch, email the author and the page is updated within 24 hours.