Excise Dept. ordinance should be amended to suit present situation: Siyambalapitiya

The Excise Department ordinance should be amended to be compatible with the current situations, Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.

The Excise Ordinance was introduced in 1912. Since then, nearly 1,200 amendments and excise announcements have been added to it. 

With the large number of amendments and announcements, the ordinance had become unnecessarily complicated, causing many legal issues in the present context. 

Due to the complicated situation, and over the past 110 years, various legal issues have arisen while enforcing laws against newly- introduced alcohol and drug varieties.

Therefore, it is very much needed to update the ordinance to be compatible with current situations.

The process of amending the Excise Ordinance has reached its conclusion.

He said the amendments to the Excise Act will be tabled in Parliament soon. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)