Excise Dept. ordinance should be updated: Siyambalapitiya

• Says amendments to the Excise Act will be tabled in Parliament soon  

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama   

 The Excise Department ordinance should be amended to be compatible with the current situation, Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.    

The Excise ordinance was introduced in 1912. Since then, nearly 1,200 amendments and excise announcements have been added to it.   

With the large number of amendments and announcements, the ordinance had become unnecessarily complicated, causing many legal issues in the present context.   
Over the past 110 years, various legal issues have arisen while enforcing laws against newly introduced alcohol and drug varieties.