Sri Lanka’s demand for legal booze drops by 40 %
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has affected demand for legally produced liquor by 40 per cent with patrons staying away from liquor bars and wine stores in the country at present, the Excise Department head divulged.
Commissioner General of Excise M.J. Gunasiri told the Business Times that the demand for liquor has dropped significantly due to unbearable price hike of arrack and other alcoholic beverages by manufacturing companies and present economic hardships faced by the people.
The daily revenue of the department has dropped by Rs. 100 to Rs. 150 million as the people cannot afford to buy the widely-consumed 750 millilitre bottle of extra special arrack at the price of Rs.2500, an increase of Rs.680 from the previous price, he revealed.
Locally manufactured beer containing 450 millilitres also rose by Rs. 30 with the market price at Rs.330.
This was not due to the tax hike but owing to a massive decline in the buying power of people, he pointed out adding that the monthly excise duty paid to the government which used to be approximately
Rs. 9 billion has reduced to
Rs. 5.4 billion. Liquor manufacturing companies made three price revisions recently due to high prices and scarcity of the main ingredient ethanol being produced locally using sugar cane which has been impacted by organic fertiliser demand, a senior official of a leading distilleries company said.
Production costs and raw materials as well as other ingredient costs like essence have also increased, he pointed out adding that ethanol previously priced at Rs. 500 to 600 has been increased to Rs. 1000 to 1500.
Domestic ethanol production has come down drastically due to low harvests of sugar cane and corn as a result of using organic fertiliser for cultivations.
Leading local manufacturers have urged the government to enable the importation of ethanol as the scarcity of ethanol badly hits the industry.
Mr. Gunasiri noted that excise officers are conducting raids to crack down on liquor bars and wine stores selling liquor bottle without stickers with the unique code or affixed with false liquors.
He revealed that the department has recently imported 11 million security stickers from Madras Security Printers Company of India and there was no shortage of stickers at present.
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