LNP – Tax revenue plummeting as liquor sales significantly drop: Excise

The Excise tax revenue targeted for the year 2022 is plummeting as the sale of alcoholic beverages have significantly dropped owing to the recent excessive pricing on the booze, the Department of Excise complained yesterday.

Excise Chief M. J. Gunasiri met the leading liquor manufacturers in the country on Friday had said that they were unable to meet the required targets of the tax revenue on alcoholic spirits as the sale of booze had reduced significantly.

The Excise Commissioner General had pointed out that they were given a target of Rs.185 billion to achieve by the end of 2022 from the Ministry of Finance and by June they have only achieved Rs.90 billion.

Although half of the target had been achieved by the first six months, it will not be possible to achieve the rest within the next six months as the sale of liquor is drastically going down since the last couple of months.

The increase of VAT twice within the year and the prices of Ethanol and fuel had skyrocketed in the first few months had forced the manufacturers to increase their pricing on the liquor products, thus resulting in the consumers to distance themselves from the booze gradually, the manufacturers have pointed out.

Also, they have told the Excise that 37% of Sri Lanka’s liquor consumption is based on illicit products and by controlling the illicit factor the legalized products could gain its sales gradually.

The Excise chief had responded by applying the recently introduced security sticker feature on the legalized products, the illicit trade could be addressed efficientl

One thought on “LNP – Tax revenue plummeting as liquor sales significantly drop: Excise

  • October 3, 2022 at 11:03 am
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    yes alcohol is very expensive in Sri Lanka and more and more people are going towards beer consumption.

    Reply

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