Excise Department on the brink of collapse

As entire top rung of uniform staff to retire in next three months

• Department expected to collect Rs.160 Mn per day from new VAT
• Sections of the Department head office already looked deserted

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

In the face of having to collect additional tax revenue of staggering Rs.160 million per day from 1st January owing to the new VAT regulations, the Excise Department of Sri Lanka is on the brink of collapsing as its entire top rung of uniform staff are scheduled to retire in the coming three months, the Daily Mirror learns.   

Being one of the country’s three main revenue generating arms, the Department of Excise is already facing a severe short of staff in the top rung of officials and is likely to become dysfunctional by March this year, as the remaining senior officials are also to go on retirement in completion of 60 years of age including its chief the Excise Commissioner General.   
Except for the positions of the ECG and two Excise Commissioners that come from Sri Lanka Administrative Service and three other officials from Sri Lanka Accountants Service, the higher organisation structure of the department should be comprised of a uniform staff of an Additional Excise Commissioner General (AECG), two Excise Commissioners (EC), seven Deputy Excise Commissioners and over 10 Assistant Excise Commissioners.   
The top uniform staff of the Excise Department including several assistant commissioners is based at the Excise Headquarters in Rajagiriya, which is responsible for the entire operations of the department including revenue collection and law enforcement.   
According to inside sources, out of the stipulated amount of senior cadre the entire operations were manned by only one Excise Commissioner who had also covered the duties of the AECG, one Deputy Commissioner and four Assistant Commissioners who had also covered the duties of six Deputy Commissioners for the past year.   

However, the situation worsened when the only remaining uniform staff Deputy Commissioner went on retirement in early December last year and the only Excise Commissioner who even covered the duties of Additional Excise Commissioner General went on retirement from December 31.   

Out of the only remaining senior uniform staff, which were the four Assistant Commissioners (who were even covering duties of the deputy commissioners) one would go on retirement in late February, another in March and another in April. The incumbent Excise Chief Saman Jayasinghe will go on retirement in March.   

All these senior uniform staff officials have an experience of over 35 years and when they all go on retirement in the next three months the operations have to be run by the remaining fresh assistant commissioners who had been promoted in the recent past from the rank of Excise Superintendent with merely a service of only 25 years, which is not sufficient at all for the demanding service requirements of a department that is more than 100 years, the sources said.   

The major gap in the service structure has risen as a result of the mismanagement of the governments which ruled the country in 1970’s by absorbing most officers from the Excise Department to man the other state departments.   

The senior Excise officials have brought the situation to the knowledge of the department’s competent authority, the Ministry of Finance on many occasions but the response had been negative, the sources said.   

As of December 31 the amount of tax revenue to be collected by the department was Rs.500 million but with the latest value added tax, the amount has increased up to Rs.660 million from January 1, 2024 with an annual target of Rs.232 billion and the officials are deeply concerned how to meet the required targets with a severe shortage of experienced staff.   
With a 30% shortage of staff in the entire organisation, sections of the Department of Excise head office already looked deserted with empty offices of several top rung officials, the sources said.   

•  The situation worsened when the only remaining uniform staff Deputy Commissioner went on retirement in early December last year
• All these senior uniform staff officials have an experience of over 35 years