Head of Ways and Means Committee wants fresh tender called for liquor revenue stickers

The Ways and Means Committee of Parliament has asked the Finance Ministry to call for a fresh tender for printing fool-proof revenue stickers for bottles of liquor.

Addressing the media in the parliamentary complex, on Friday, Chairman of he Ways and Means Committee Champika Ranawaka said they had decided that a fresh tender should be called immediately as there were many malpractices involving the revenue stickers supplied by the Madras Security Printers.

“Every counterfeit sticker causes for a loss of Rs 2,900 to the government coffers,” Ranawaka said.

He said that following a directive by the Ways and Means Committee to the Excise Department to conduct raids, around 44,000 bottles of liquor with forged stickers on them had been taken into custody the previous week alone. They inspected 52 liquor manufacturing factories and seized a huge stock of counterfeit stickers. The current tender was given to the Madras Security Printers in 2018.