SL to lose Rs. 1B annually Lankan boozers to make India rich – SJB MP

By Saman Indrajith

An Indian printing company, Madras Security Printers Company of India, will pocket two rupees from every bottle or can of spirits or beer Sri Lankans consumed if the new plans of the Excise Department were to be implemented, SJB MP Buddhika Pathirana said yesterday, addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Colombo.

MP Pathirana said that the Excise Department’s plan to introduce a sticker with a unique code would increase the prices of bottles and cans of beer by two rupees and the money would go to an Indian company.

“The Sri Lankan boozers will be filling Indian coffers, in such an eventuality,” the MP said.

MP Pathirana said that the Excise Department, during the yahapalana administration, had come up with the proposal to stop the sale of substandard liquor and adulterated liquor to the customers by affixing stickers on bottles and cans of liquor.

“The cost of a sticker was estimated at 25 cents. At that time, the Indian company submitted a tender application, the Government Press too submitted one. The yahapalanaya choose the Indian company and some of us opposed giving the tender to a foreign company. Because of our objections the previous government did not go ahead with the project. Now, the SLPP government is said to have offered the contract to the Indian company. The plan is to introduce a bar-code sticker. There are two main types of barcodes – the traditional barcodes known as linear barcodes and 2D barcodes popularly known as QR codes. The cost of a sticker is two rupees. The liquor producing companies would pass this extra two rupees on to the consumers who will finally be contributing to the Indian coffers,” the MP said.

MP Pathirana said he had raised this issue in Parliament as well but the government had not provided an answer. He said that it was obvious that money had changed hands, which was the reason why the government was silent.

“I asked in Parliament whether it was a case of the Finance Ministry and the Excise Department officials duping the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal or another example for officials getting together to line their pockets. The government did not answer my question on that day. The following day, the Excise Department issued a press release responding to the matters that I raised in parliament.”

Pathirana said that he had raised a series of questions during his speech in Parliament but the Excise Department had only responded to the last of those questions. “So I presume that they accept the other allegations I levelled,” the MP said.

MP Pathirana said at least four million stickers would be needed a month and the state coffers would lose at least one billion rupees annually. He added that MSP had been black-listed in India after being found guilty of frauds involving providing stickers to Indian liquor manufacturers.

“MSP has been blacklisted in several other countries as well. Seventeen top officials of the MSP including its owner were once caught in Kenya for releasing such stickers to unauthorised parties. The company has been banned in Sudan and Liberia for supplying the stickers illegally to private companies,.”