11 October 2023 09:31 am Views - 309
By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana
The revenue of the Department of Excise has increased by Rs.1 billion during a period of one month since the directives made by the Parliament Committee on Ways and Means to escalate and expedite raids on liquor bottles with fake security stickers.
It transpired when the Committee on Ways and Means met at the Parliament yesterday under the chairmanship of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka, that in the last month alone over 100,000 liquor bottles with fake security stickers had been seized by the Excise Department.
The committee when met on August 10th gave a directive to the Excise Commissioner General to escalate and expedite detections on domestically produced liquor bottles with fake security stickers.
Committee head MP Ranawaka on several occasions made directives to the relevant authorities to take strict action to eliminate the illegal liquor production with fake security stickers as it will drastically reduce the tax revenue to the state.
The Parliamentarian even on a recent occasion ordered to recall of the tender of introducing and printing a new security sticker with foolproof measures to mitigate the controversial tax fraud.
By the proposed new QR code the ability to identify whether a liquor product is genuine or not, as well as the amount of tax revenue to the Excise Department could be determined.