Sri Lanka, May 21 -- The rupee continued it's free fall with the central bank quoting the selling rate of the US Dollar as 342.70, its highest level since March 2023.

Over the weekend, the president gazetted a temporary surcharge on vehicle import duties for the next three months, a measure officials say is meant to slow the outflow of dollars at a moment when the currency is under visible pressure.

On paper, the logic is straightforward. Vehicles are among the more dollar-intensive categories of imports, and curbing them, even temporarily, should ease demand for foreign exchange. In practice, however, economists are sharply split on whether the surcharge addresses the real problem or simply shifts the cost of the crisis onto ordinary c...