Five leading manufacturers seek licences to produce more brands of booze-By Saman Indrajith

No business like liquor trade even during deadly pandemic

Source:Island

Controversy surrounds attempts by five leading liquor manufacturing companies in the country to secure new liquor producing licences, while the country is reeling from the effects of the deadly pandemic, Excise Trade Union sources say.

Five leading hard liquor manufacturing companies had applied for licences to produce new brews including wine and cider and the main regulatory body the Department of Excise had forwarded them to the Ministry of Finance for approval, union sources said.  

Excise Commissioner General M.J. Gunasena told the media over the weekend that although they had received applications for liquor production licences from five well-known manufacturers, they had not yet decided to issue permits.

The trade union leader said that even the Ministry of Finance had considered completing the ground work to process the licence applications for these liquor giants.

Matara District SJB MP Buddhika Pathirana made this revelation a fortnight ago about these attempts by the government to grant more liquor manufacturing licenses to several companies.

According to statistics tabled by the SJB MP in the House, Sri Lanka has about 24 licence holders producing liquor. However, the data showed that only five of these 24 companies are contributing 95% to the tax income generated from the country’s entire liquor industry.

The rest of the 19 producers either do not make ample profits or evade paying tax by not maintaining proper books.

Excise Spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Kapila Kumarasinghe or Secretary to the Ministry of Finance were not immediately available for comment.