President calls North to stop consuming alcohol
24 January 2016 04:29 pm
In his continuing campaign for abstinence, President Maithripala Sirisena called upon the residents of the Northern Province to stop consuming alcohol.
“There is more alcohol distributed here in the North than elsewhere in the country. Alcohol is worse than weapons of war. It destroys lives,” he said, at the ceremonial opening of the Hirdaramani Group’s latest apparel factory in Puthukudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu.
Noting that a majority of the factory workers were young, he had a directed his words at the young people.
“Young minds get distracted fast by one thing or another. But the solution to that is not alcohol,” he said.
He said the government had undertaken many programmes in the North to curtail alcohol distribution.
The leading liquor manufacturers in the country had repeatedly complained to the government that illicit liquor was being distributed in the Northern Province -- much of it with the patronage of government officials.
The warnings had been ignored until today. However, the president is also targeting legally manufactured liquor in his campaign to eradicate alcohol and drug consumption.
Excise duty, manufacturing licences and retail licences for liquor constitute a major portion of the state revenue.
Liquor sales contribute greatly towards propping up the ailing economy. The liquor industry is now resigned to a tax hike annually (in October or November). The additional income is used to shore up the budget.
The result of the constantly rising alcohol prices has been that a major proportion of the population have opted to consume illicit liquor, thus endangering their health and denying the government of revenue.
However, the president had said recently that the excise duty on liquor would not be included in the national budget from 2020 onwards -- thus reducing the government’s dependence on the income from alcohol -- as he would make the country’s taxation schemes stronger and end alcohol consumption.
(Chandeepa Wettasinghe)