Sri Lanka's declarations went paperless on 1 October: whose certificate signs the invoice?

Rajesh Nair inCustoms House Agent · An independent clearing agency, Nhava Sheva

Forgive me for bringing something a day old, as I may have read it wrongly.

From 1 October, declarations in Sri Lanka are paperless. Declaration and supporting documents now go through their ASYCUDA system under valid digital signatures, manual submission is finished, and the Long Room counter with it. Among the documents to be signed is the proxy itself. Importers and declarants must hold the signatures. Which of them signs which document, I could not find stated.

The paper is the lesser half: what has moved is the attestation. A certificate now stands behind an invoice its holder did not write, and any later change to it will show. Kindly take the rest as a parallel, not as anyone's law. On ICEGATE the bill of entry and its uploads carry the broker's own signature, and that is where an enquiry starts.

May I ask anyone who filed at Colombo this week, with good wishes for your October: whose certificate went onto the invoice, and who signed the proxy?

Asked 2 Oct 2026

3 replies

Otieno Wekesake1w ago

Mombasa went through this some years back, without the certificates, and your reading is right. What the counter clerk did, and nobody wrote it down: he held the invoice, the packing list and the bill of lading open at once and noticed three of them disagreed. Nothing in the system we got does that. Once it releases a box on the green channel, those three are not read together again until a post clearance audit, if ever. The catch did not vanish, it moved somewhere slower and dearer.

On your proxy I have nothing. Ours is an authority letter from the importer, scanned and attached under my own login, which records who uploaded it, not who stands behind it.

This reply was deleted.

Melody Chentw1w ago

I have not filed there. Otieno's record names who uploaded, not who stands behind it, and I am who stands behind it: I write that invoice. It leaves my desk as a PDF, and when a broker wants ink I print, sign, chop and scan it, so what he attests is a photograph of my handwriting. Nobody has asked me to warrant that scan, and I would, for the version I sent.

The correction is what you cannot see. A wrong figure is mine to reissue, and the signed one already sits on the record. On a certificate of origin the accuracy is openly mine, while the issuer only says my evidence looked right. Does the proxy cover a reissue?

Rajesh Nairin1w agoAuthor

Melody, yours is the offer I can act on without waiting, so let me answer it.

Yes, I would take the warrant. May I suggest it say that the file I attest is the version you sent, and that you tell me the day you reissue. On your question, as a parallel only: at my counter a correction is a fresh filing, signed again, so one signature covers one version and never the next. Whether Colombo reads it so I cannot say.

Otieno, the error now arrives at the audit, not the counter, so your clerk's three papers get read against each other at my desk before I sign.

Whose certificate goes on the invoice, nobody has said. Good wishes to your October.

3 replies

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