 Return to LNP
This News Site:
Lanka Newspapers is the largest Sri Lanka News forum online. Thousands of Sri Lankans from around the world gather here daily to discuss current news events of Sri Lanka. Join Today!
|
|
|
Ethyl Alcohol mysteriously turned into Glycerol - Arrests soon in massive swindle
Thursday, 27 July 2006 - 4:15 AM SL Time
|
|
|
Arrests are imminent over the million-dollar swindle where a consignment of ethyl alcohol was transformation into Aromatic Liquid Glycerol in the port of Colombo, an Excise Department source said yesterday.
`For the 17 container loads of spirit alcohol the importer has to pay Rs. 250 million as Excise Duty. When it is imported as Aromatic Liquid Glycerol, the duty is negligible. In the process, from this consignment alone, Sri Lanka has lost an excise duty of .25 billion rupees,` E. M. T. B. Wickramanayake, Excise Superintendent, conducting the investigations, told The Island.
The operation, carried out over a period of time, was detected when officials noticed that the Port of Discharge and the Place of Delivery of the cargo was both Colombo. The `cargo` had arrived from South Africa to be transhipped through Colombo on its way to its destination, Malaysia. What was discharged in Colombo was spirit alcohol and the cargo which was unloaded in Malaysia was Aromatic Liquid Glycerol.
`How the load of spirit alcohol was taken out of the port is still a mystery and a probe is being conducted into that too,` he said.
Two officers including Mr. Wickramanayake had conducted investigations in Malaysia from July 8 to 15 with the assistance of the Sri Lanka High Commission there. `The Lankan mission is expected to send their own report within this week,` Mr. Wickramanayake said.
He said that 80 barrels could be loaded into a container and each barrel had 200 litres of ethyl alcohol. `The swindle has deprived the Sri Lanka government of Rs. Rs. 250,000,000` he said. The suspects were to be taken in for questioning within this week.
The agency that had imported the consignment has been in operation since 1960 and had supplied ethyl alcohol to many distilleries in the island, the official said.
`We have a feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg. This would not have been the first time. It would have been going on for over a long period. We are looking into the matter,` he added.
|
|
|
bulto
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 220
Member Profile
|
27 Jul 2006 16:00:56 GMT Report for Abuse
|
If Jesus
can turn
Water into Wine
then surely
Managala (the Ports Minister) and his cronies
can turn
Ethyl Alcohol into Aromatic Glycerol
whats the problem here? |
|
