Rumour on slashing liquor prices for Avurudu baseless: Excise Dept.

Colombo, March 27 (Daily Mirror) - The present widely spread rumour about slashing of liquor prices for the upcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year has no basis in it, the Department of Excise said today.

Excise Spokesperson Channa Weerakkody said news is currently circulated in the media about the excessive prices of liquor owing to the higher Excise tax imposed on them would be reduced in order to get the prices of liquor slashed.

He said the Excise Department has not received any order or instruction from its competent authority the Ministry of Finance to amend the Excise tax on liquor thus the prices of liquor will not be reduced.

Therefore, the news on reduction of liquor prices is false and baseless, Excise Commissioner Revenue Operations Weerakkody said.

Last week, the Chief of Excise M.J. Gunasiri told the Daily Mirror that the consumption of liquor in the country is reducing significantly owing to the higher prices. He said the department is given a fresh annual target of Rs.232 billion to be met by the end of this year.

Gunasiri said achieving this figure is questionable as the production of liquor during last January has dropped by 650,000 litres compared to the production of January 2023.