Editorial
Booze, hooch and taxes
Writing his chairman’s review in the latest annual report of the Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka PLC (DCSL), the country’s biggest liquor manufacturer, Mr. Harry Jayawardena warned that pure coconut arrack may soon be history. This prediction was based on the price of this super-taxed product, which has made it totally unaffordable to the consumer. Obviously Jayawardena is talking from the perspective of the manufacturer, but nobody would or could dispute his logic. People don’t drink kasippu out of choice. The price stick, freely used by all governments, has driven imbibers into the arms of the illicit hooch mudalalis. Gone are the days when ‘Pol’ and ‘Gal’ arrack was priced at ten and eight rupees a bottle respectively. Today a bottle of ‘Gal’ costs Rs. 1,600, ‘Pol’ Rs. 1,750 and if you want it double distilled, a bottle would set you back a cool 2,000 bucks.
‘Pol’ of course refers to coconut arrack while ‘Gal’ stood for what was produced out of potable alcohol obtained as a byproduct of the Gal Oya sugar industry. The word “byproduct” was a clear misnomer; the sugar industry, whether at Gal Oya, Pelwatte or wherever, has long been making more money out of the alcohol distilled from the sugar cane molasses than from the sugar itself. This was probably why a previous government took over the listed Pelwatte Sugar Manufacturing Company established to help the country to be self-sufficient in sugar. While a private sector chairman of Pelwatte pre-takeover freely admitted that the company made more money from its alcohol byproduct that from its sugar, where the alcohol Pelwatte produces goes now is anybody’s guess. The budget debate would have been an opportunity to ask that question and get a very useful answer; but that did not happen.
We are writing this in the context of what emerged during the budget debate which ended on Thursday after 20 days of sound and fury with the predictably comfortable passage of Budget 2021. There was a lot discussion there about “artificial toddy,” something that Harry Jayawardena too has been talking about for many years. Matara District MP Buddhika Pathirana (SJB) estimated state coffers were being robbed of as much as Rs. 80 billion in excise revenue by artificial toddy manufacturers exploiting loopholes in the law. Pathirana says that the artificial toddy industry is rooted in the southern coastal area where a cocktail of urea, ammonia, nickel-cadmium from old cell phone batteries and sugar is used in a lethal brew.
He explained that the extent of the problem can be gauged with some simple arithmetic. Apparently only about one and a half liters or toddy can be had from a single coconut palm. Adding up the number of trees tapped and the volumes offered to distilleries, Pathirana estimates a discrepancy of 60-70,000 liters. Dangerously, it’s not only imbibers choosing to down rotgut with the attendant health implications, but also ordinary householders buying what they think is coconut vinegar who are at risk, he has pointed out. The Excise Department is well aware of the existence of this artificial toddy racket, which is a continuing one, although it does not agree that the Rs. 80 billion revenue loss that is alleged is accurate.
DCSL which took over the assets of its state-owned predecessor, the Distilleries Corporation during the Premadasa administration, when the government arrack monopoly (or near monopoly) was ended has long been conscious of the fact that it is a player in a so-called ‘sin industry.’ It has from the time of its first chairman, former Civil Servant V.P. (Totsy) Vittachi, been diversifying into various other businesses. Given that over 90% of what you pay for a bottle of arrack (or a single cigarette for that matter) are taxes the manufacturers are collecting for the government, and the payments to the state are not instantly made, a massive cash tranche is available to them to make other investments. This DCSL has cleverly done over the years, and its holding company, Melstar, is a highly diversified conglomerate into a variety of businesses. Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) has not done likewise to the extent of DCSL although it once diversified into insurance like its parent, British American Tobacco. However CTC pays its tax collection to the Treasury on a weekly basis. We do not know how it works where DCSL is concerned.
State Minister Nivard Cabraal who is the virtual Deputy Minister if Finance (the Prime Minister holds the finance portfolio) has called for a report from the Excise Department and the Secretary to the Treasury on matters that emerged in Parliament during the discussion. He acknowledged Pathirana’s useful contribution to the debate and assured follow-up on matters raised. The hard liquor industry has not only been a substantial source of government revenue, but had also produced many millionaires in this country. Arrack has made fortunes for different entrepreneurs from the Dutch and British colonial era when so-called arrack renting was a lucrative business. There has been generous philanthropy arising from such fortunes with, for example, the founding of Visakha Vidyalaya by Mrs. Jeramias Dias (Selestina Rodrigo) of Panadura. Ironically, Arthur V. Dias (popularly known as Kos Mama because of his campaign to plant jak trees), the son of Jeramias Dias, became a leader of the temperance movement at a later time.
It is common knowledge that the illicit liquor industry rampant in the country not only costs the government desperately needed revenue but also is at the root of corruption in the various enforcement agencies. Political patronage to this menace has been freely alleged over the years as have similar allegations with regard to narcotics. Prohibition has not proved a success wherever it was attempted. Government must necessarily balance competing interests including revenue, the cost of alcohol related disease to the healthcare system, the damage drunkenness causes innumerable families and many more in designing its alcohol policies. There’s a lot wrong with what prevails – artificial toddy is just one aspect.
Saturday 8th June, 2024
It was with shock and dismay that we received the news about death threats to COPF (Committee on Public Finance) Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva over the ongoing parliamentary probe into the on-arrival visa scam. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in Parliament, that he was facing death threats and intimidation, and it was incumbent upon Parliament to ensure his safety. He stopped short of naming names, but revealed that some ruling party MPs were among those who had ganged up against him. The Speaker only said there had been no complaint, and he would look into the matter.
The SLPP-UNP government has been doing everything in its power to have all parliamentary committees under its thumb. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), which once helped restore public faith in the legislature by exposing state sector corruption, has now become a mere appendage of the incumbent regime, thanks to the appointment of SLPP MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena as its Chairman. The SLPP-UNP combine also tried to oust COPF Chairman Dr. de Silva, but in vain. However, it knows more than one way to shoe a horse.
The COPF, under Dr. de Silva’s chairmanship, has been a thorn in the side of the government, which is struggling to cover up numerous corrupt deals. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Parliament that he found it extremely difficult to function as the COPF head due to severe resource constraints his committee was facing; he himself had to pay the salaries of some of his staff members besides burning the midnight oil.
The sheer workload he had to cope with as the COPF chief had taken its toll on his health, he said, informing the Speaker that he was at the end of his tether, and at times thought of resigning from the COPF. This is exactly what the government wants him to do; resource squeezes and threats are aimed at making him quit.
On 26 May, Dr. de Silva revealed, in an ‘X’ post, that the COPF had uncovered some vital information about the visa scam and it would reveal everything after its final meeting on the issue; the COPF was committed to exposing the truth behind the controversial tender, he added. In an editorial comment on 27 May, we warned him.
While thanking him for his bold stand, we pointed out that by making such a statement, he had thrown caution to the wind, and become a marked target, with the government making an all-out effort to delay the COPF investigation lest the truth should come out much to the detriment of its interests in this election year. Unfortunately, what was feared has come about; Dr. de Silva is complaining of death threats and government moves to strangulate the COPF financially to derail its investigations.
Dr. de Silva’s predicament exemplifies the fate that befalls the few good men and women in Parliament. It is hoped that all those who seek an end to the state sector corruption will rally behind Dr. de Silva, and bring pressure to bear on the government to ensure his safety. Let Dr. de Silva be urged to reveal the names of those who have issued threats, veiled or otherwise, to him and are trying to scuttle the COPF probes.
Friday 7th June, 2024
The SLPP-UNP government is going hell for leather to make bad laws as if there were no tomorrow. It is abusing its parliamentary majority, which has been retained with the help of some crossovers, for that purpose. The Opposition, the media and trade unions are up in arms, and understandably so. The incumbent regime is a dead man walking; it is so desperate that it is capable of anything. Hence the need for it to be restrained.
The Electricity (Amendment) Bill (EAB) plunged Parliament into turmoil yesterday, but the government secured its passage. The Supreme Court (SC) determined the entire EAB inconsistent with the Constitution and recommended changes thereto. After unveiling the Bill, sometime ago, Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera hailed it as an excellent piece of legislation aimed at straightening up the power sector to serve the public interest better.
The SC determination left him with egg on his face. He reminded us of the proverbial curate who, while eating a stale egg, assured his host, a Bishop, that parts of it were excellent. Wijesekera’s egg, as it were, made Parliament stink yesterday, but he sought to please his masters by praising it as a silver bullet.
EAB should have been discarded and a new one drafted in consultation with all stakeholders. But the government is apparently driven by an ulterior motive; its aim is not to serve Sri Lanka’s interests but to look after those of some moneybags.
It is not uncommon for Bills to contain some flaws, which are rectified either before or during the committee stage. But there is something terribly wrong with draft Bills that are full of sections inconsistent with the Constitution. The drafters of EAB have demonstrated their sheer ignorance of the supreme law, and that they are not equal to the task of drafting Bills. If they had read the Constitution at least perfunctorily, they would not have drafted such a bad law.
Ignorant and incompetent, they do not deserve to be paid with public funds and must be sent back to law school. They must be summoned before Parliament and questioned on their serious lapses, which have caused public faith in the national legislature to diminish.
Curiously, the MPs who demand that judges, doctors, Central Bankers, and other public officials be summoned before Parliament have taken badly drafted Bills for granted. The power sector trade unions yesterday alleged that EAB was of Indian origin and geared towards furthering the interests of Adani Group at the expense of Sri Lanka.
Most critics of EAB are agreeable in principle to the need for power sector reforms; the Ceylon Electricity Board should be given a radical shake-up, and transformed into a modern organisation capable of providing a better service at a lower cost. They only asked the government to tread cautiously, consulting all stakeholders and taking action to ensure that the country’s interests prevailed over everything else. But the government was in a mighty hurry to steamroller the Bill through Parliament, making the Opposition ask whether it was doing so at the behest of some external forces involved in controversial power generation deals here.
What is passed by the current Parliament can be either amended or abolished by a future parliament in a constitutionally prescribed manner. But that does not mean that a government is free to pass bad laws, making the country enter into long-term agreements with powerful nations and their investors. It looks as if the SLPP-UNP regime did not care two hoots about the consequences of its actions.
Thursday 6th June, 2024
The outcome of India’s parliamentary election (2024) has led to a ‘perspective ambiguity’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in declaring victory for the BJP-led NDA alliance, which secured 293 seats in the 543-member Parliament, but he must be a worried man. The BJP is short of 32 seats to form a government under its own steam; it has lost 63 seats or about 20% of its parliamentary strength. It had 303 seats in the previous Parliament, and that number has dropped to 240.
Modi has become the second Indian Prime Minister to win a third term. The first PM to do so was Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru won an outright majority in Parliament in 1962; Modi has had to depend on smaller parties in his alliance to retain his hold on power. Modi must be reeling from a sharp drop in his victory margin in his own constituency, Varanasi; it has decreased to 152,000 from 480,000 in 2019 whereas Modi’s bete noire, Rahul Gandhi, won Raebareli by a staggering 390,000 votes.
Modi, who reigned supreme with 303 seats in the previous Parliament, is now dependent on parties such as Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to form a government. He has had to lead an alliance of strange bedfellows. Both Kumar and Naidu were bitter critics of Modi. Kumar helped form the oppositional alliance, the INDIA bloc, before switching his allegiance to PM Modi. Naidu also closed ranks with the BJP in the run-up to the election. These politicians have been described as extremely ambitious and highly unpredictable, and whether Modi will be able to manage them and consolidate his grip on the NDA alliance remains to be seen. They will demand plum ministerial posts in return for their support. The TDP is said to be eyeing Transport and Health portfolios! That is the name of the game in coalition politics, where it is not uncommon for the tail to wag the dog, so to speak. These two political leaders are however not the only problem Modi will have to contend with. The next five years will feel like an eternity for PM Modi.
Nothing would have been more shocking for the BJP than its defeat in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir has been built. Modi may have thought he would be able to win the Lok Sabha election hands down after the consecration of that temple, which became a centrepiece of the BJP’s election campaign. The BJP lost that seat to the Samajwadi Party! Modi must be disappointed that the Ram Mandir hype failed to trigger a massive wave of support for his party. This particular defeat signifies a massive setback for the BJP’s ethno-religious agenda.
Modi’s divisive election campaign failed to yield the desired result. The BJP’s failure to secure an outright majority could be attributed to a host of factors, some of them being the suppression of the Opposition, the arrogance of power, chronic unemployment, and the rising cost of living. The BJP also did not care to reimage itself in a positive light to attract the youth.
Modi will hereafter see the Congress-led INDIA bloc with 223 seats, in his rearview mirror. The Congress (99 seats) and its allies have eaten into the BJP support base considerably, but they have a long way to go before being able to capture power.
The bumpy ride ahead for the BJP-led coalition government to be formed may improve the INDIA bloc’s chances of bettering their electoral performance and turning the tables on the BJP and its allies in time to come. Modi will have a lot to worry about in his third term.
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