Sri Lanka’s tile and sanitary ware importers have raised concerns on the government-imposed import ban stating that the unpopular move is not only detrimental to the industry, but also to the national economy.
According to the Tile and Sanitary Ware Importers Association (TSIA), the temporary suspension, if not rectified, will have a cascading effect on auxiliary related industries such as warehousing & logistics, clearing & forwarding, banking & finance, construction, and commercial real estates amongst others.
In a statement to the media, the TSIA stressed that such action would also increase under-employment across a large cross-section of professions including architects, engineers, consultants, quantity surveyors, sub-contractors as well as tile masons and daily wage earners.
Meanwhile, the TSIA expressed confidence in the capabilities of its members to bring down major global players to invest in the manufacturing of tile and sanitary ware in the country. However, the member base is of the view that the investment environment is not conducive for any such organisation to setup operations in Sri Lanka due to the poor Return on Investment (ROI). The ‘poor’ ROI was attributed to high energy cost in local manufacturing and the relatively smaller size of the market.
TSIA Secretary General Ervin Bulathsinghala noted that given the high energy requirement, the cost of local production is double that of the international finished product of the same or better quality.
