Sri Lanka, Aug. 14 -- The Board of Investment (BOI) is facing regulatory pressure following an Auditor General's report that has laid bare environmental compliance failures and capital expenditure lapses across Sri Lanka's export processing zones. The audit, contained in the BOI's 2024 Annual Report released last month, found that major industrial hubs have operated for over three decades without the mandatory concurrence of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA).

A regulatory gap has persisted since the early 1990s, with the apex investment agency bypassing the national environmental regulator to issue its own compliance certificates. According to official audit responses contained in the report, "Since 1992, the practice for issuin...