Finance State Minister Dr. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told Parliament yesterday that by increasing the price of alcohol has increased state revenue and helped control alcohol consumption due to the strategic decisions taken by the government.
The State Minister also said that the excise tax revenue has increased by 20 percent in the first six months of 2024 alone compared to the same period last year. He mentioned this while joining the debate held in Parliament yesterday on several notification under the Excise Ordinance.
In the first six months of 2023, 18 million liters of alcohol have been produced and the government has earned Rs.83 billion.He also said that during the same period of this year, the production of alcohol was recorded as 16.7 million liters, indicating a decrease of 8 percent in production compared to the same period in last year. He said that the government has earned Rs.100 billion in the first six months of this year, showing a 20 percent increase in revenue, instead of the Rs.83 billion of excise revenue received in the first six months of 2023.
He pointed out that the use of cigarettes has decreased by 41.9 percent between 2015 and 2022 and the income has increased by 36 percent. In 2015, the people of Sri Lanka used 3.96 billion cigarettes and the number has decreased to 2.3 billion by 2023. He also said that the tobacco tax revenues of Rs.81.15 billion received in 2015 have been increased to Rs.110 billion by 2023. Meanwhile, he pointed out that in the past two years, the use of cigarettes has decreased by 17 percent and the income has increased by 6 percent. In 2022, there were 2.82 billion cigarettes used, which has decreased to 2.3 billion by 2023.He pointed out that the cigarette tax revenue of Rs.104 billion in 2022 was recorded as Rs.110 billion in 2023.
Meanwhile, He also said that the government has not given permission to start any liquor store without the proper procedure. In the past two years, 1,635 applications for new liquor stores have been submitted, but only 522 applications have been approved and the majority of them are licences given to restaurants for the promotion of the tourism industry.
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