The directive was issued on Tuesday (19) at a conference attended by high ranking officers of the Finance Ministry, Treasury, heads of state and private sector banks and senior officers of the police and security forces.

The President revealed that there was a large scale racket of smuggling out gold bought at auctions conducted by state and private banks.

The Presidential Secretariat last night said that orders had been issued to take immediate action to bring the smuggling racket to an end. They also decided to introduce new laws to tackle the situation.

(island.lk)