Liquor consumption increases; Excise revenue decreases

The Excise Department says its revenue for the first two months of this year has dropped by 12.2 percent, compared to the income it received during the first two months last year.

Excise Commissioner General Saman Jayasinghe said that during the first two months of the year 2022, his Department had received Rs 28.6 billion as rupee revenue. This year, its revenue had come down to Rs 25.1 billion, he said.Jayasinghe said the excise revenue had dropped despite a 20 percent increase in tax on liquor.

The decrease in the excise revenue, he said, was not due to a drop in the liquor consumption. Instead, the sale of illicit liquor had increased, he said. Jayasinghe pointed out that Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya had recently told Parliament that the consumption of illicit liquor had increased by 300 percent in Sri Lanka quoting WHO survey reports.