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.