By Charles Haviland | BBC News
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The government has confiscated the magazine on a number of occasions this year, although usually its distribution is merely delayed.
The current edition has an opinion piece which said the changes showed President Mahinda Rajapaksa "put the consolidation of his family's power ahead of... national reconciliation".
Direct style
Sometimes it is The Economist's leader articles, which have a blunt and direct style, and sometimes the news reporting that appear to irk the Sri Lankan authorities.
The Sri Lanka distributor of the widely-read news and business magazine, Vijitha Yapa, said that the customs department had declined to release the latest edition and was deferring to the information department for a decision.
The head of that section, Ariyarathna Athugala, told the BBC he had not heard about the matter and no ban was in force.
But Mr Yapa said customs officials had no right to be acting as censors and alleged that they must be getting instructions from higher up in the government.
The current edition has an opinion piece which described the Sri Lanka envisaged in the revised charter as "not a pretty place".
The distributor said the authorities had delayed The Economist several times this year, sometimes for up to two weeks by which time it was not worth selling.
He said this tendency was counter-productive as the government lost out on tax revenues; he also believed it was not good for the country's image.
In the past, the head of the defence media centre has said that foreign publications are impounded if they are "harmful to national security".
© BBC News
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