Finance Ministry to nab illegal liquor as Rs. 36 b in revenue lost

By Shanika Sriyananda

The Government loses around Rs. 36 billion per year due to non-remittance of excise taxes, the Head of the newly-set up unit to crack down illegal liquor breweries in the country said yesterday.

Wing Commander (Rtd) Ravi Jayasinghe, Head, Prevention of Illegal Liquor Unit under the Ministry of Finance, said that the main aim of the unit was to raid illegal liquor breweries countrywide to increase the government revenue.

He said that the Ministry had recently found a significant disparity between country’s total liquor consumption and Government revenue from the excise sector.

“The Ministry has found that the Government suffers a huge loss from the excise sector mainly due to illegal liquor consumption of ‘kasippu,’” he said.

Jayasinghe cited the mafia releasing foreign liquor to the market without proper invoices and most distillery companies releasing liquor products to the market without proper invoicing as the other major causes for the revenue loss to the Government.

He said that the unit was opened on 30 March following a concept of the Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and commenced its operations from 25 April.

“We have carried out two major raids to crack down illegal liquor breweries in Meetiyagoda and Wennappuwa. These were in operation for nearly two decades and they have run the business unharmed. But we have destroyed the two places and handed over the people and their equipment to the Police to take further action,” Jayasinghe said.

Armed with well-trained STF and soldiers from the Sri Lanka Army, the unit is geared to carry out raids islandwide to prevent health hazards caused by consuming illegal liquor and also to increase Government revenue.

Jayasinghe said that they had warned the distilleries manufacturing companies to stop illegal operations and to maintain proper records of their sales.

“These operations will encourage consumers to buy liquor products which are legally sold in the market,” he said, adding that they carried out raids following their own intelligence reports.

Jayasinghe said that a hotline would be set up soon to get public complaints on illegal liquor manufacturing hideouts.