Star Trek Le Creuset Price in Sri Lanka — Import Cost Calculator

Two things decide what this collection costs in Sri Lanka: which tariff line the piece falls under, and how it crosses the border. The calculator handles both, because getting either wrong moves the answer by tens of thousands of rupees.

Classification first

The seven pieces span four tariff lines, which is why a generic parcel calculator misprices them. The three casseroles are enamelled cast iron under HS 7323.92. The Communi-grator grater is a household hand tool under HS 8205.51 — Sri Lanka Customs may instead read it into 7323.99, and the page says so rather than hiding the ambiguity. The Spock mug and spoon rest are stoneware under HS 6912.00. The oven mitt is a woven mitt under HS 6216.00. Every one of these is a finished consumer good, so each sits in the top band of Sri Lanka's simplified three-band (0% / 10% / 15%) tariff at 15% Customs Duty. No Cess line is confirmed in the gazette for any of the four subheadings, so Cess is set to zero and shown as a zero row — never inferred.

Then the levy cascade

With an assessable value A in rupees, the levies apply in this statutory order. Order matters, because VAT and SSCL are charged on a base that already contains the earlier levies:

1. CD = 15% × A — Customs Duty, per HS line
2. Cess = 0% × A — none gazetted for these lines
3. PAL = 10% × A — PAL Act No. 18 of 2011
4. Surcharge = 0% × CD — none currently in force
5. VAT base B = A + CD + Cess + PAL + Surcharge
6. VAT = 18% × B — IRD standard rate since 1 January 2024
7. SSCL = 2.5% × B — SSCL Act No. 25 of 2022

VAT and SSCL sit on the same base in parallel — SSCL is not charged on top of VAT. Because every levy is proportional to A, the whole cascade collapses to one constant: total tax = A × 0.50625, or 50.63%, at any magnitude. The tool computes the cascade line by line and exposes that multiplier separately, so you can check the arithmetic with a single multiplication instead of taking the result on trust.

What counts as the assessable value

On the courier route, Sri Lanka Customs assesses on CIF, so A = (goods price × quantity + freight and insurance) × exchange rate. Freight is inside the tax base, which matters here: a boxed 24 cm cast-iron casserole runs 5–7 kg and the air-freight line is not small.

On the baggage route there is no freight to assess, and only the value above the arriving passenger's duty-free concession is dutiable: A = max(0, goods value − concession). The concession bands come from the same module that powers the baggage-allowance calculator on this site, so they change in exactly one place when a Director General's Order changes them. The concession is applied once to the combined goods value, never per unit, and it covers everything that traveller brings in — phone, laptop, gifts and pot together.

The number above is the statutory tax, not the whole bill. Courier handling fees, clearing-agent charges, postal storage and demurrage, inland transport and US sales tax are all outside it. Sea freight and commercial-quantity importing are outside it too — past 10 units the personal concession stops applying and an importer registration is needed. Nothing on this page is scraped: stock levels, eBay listings and live retail prices are not fetched, and the resale figure is a multiplier you supply rather than a price we looked up. Sri Lanka Customs makes the final assessment on the declared value at inspection.

• WIRED — Jeremy White, “To Boldly Dough! Le Creuset Sent Its New Star Trek Cooking Collection Into Space” (item list, USD prices, launch date)
• Le Creuset — official store (live retail price and stock)
• Sri Lanka Customs — National Imports Tariff Guide (HS lines and Customs Duty bands)
• US International Trade Administration — Sri Lanka import tariffs (three-band 0/10/15 tariff)
• Inland Revenue Department — Value Added Tax (standard rate 18%)
• Inland Revenue Department — Social Security Contribution Levy (2.5%)
• Sri Lanka Customs — Passenger Clearance & Baggage (concession bands)
• Central Bank of Sri Lanka — indicative USD/LKR middle rate

Rates, HS lines and concession bands were last cross-checked against these sources on 2026-09-21. The collection went on sale on September 7, 2026. Sri Lanka's levy rates are reviewed after every Budget and every gazetted tariff amendment; the passenger concession changes by Director General's Order.

Background reading: the full collection price list and what the space stunt actually involved.