Finance Ministry removes law prohibiting sale of liquor to women

The Finance and Mass Media Ministry yesterday repealed a law prohibiting the sale of liquor to women and preventing them from being employed at places where liquor is manufactured or sold.

In a statement, Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera said that the amendment to the Excise Ordinance had been signed and gazetted to remove the prohibitions.  

Gazette notification 666 issued in 1979 on the sale of liquor, prohibited liquor from being sold or given to a woman of any age within the premises of a tavern. Further, the regulation also prohibited a female of any age from selling liquor. Employers were allowed to employ women over the age of 18 as only waitresses with special permission from the Excise Commissioner.

The amendment was a long time in the making, with numerous commissioners of excise over the years promising to overturn the law. However, it was during the tenure of the first female Commissioner of Excise, appointed September last year, that the law was finally overturned.

Supermarkets selectively followed this law but most high-end nightclubs, pubs and restaurants sold alcohol to women with no restrictions.