ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s legal alcohol sales were down 19 percent in 2023 amid an economic crisis and tax hikes, State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said.
He said unlike other countries there is no link between alcohol consumption and legal outlets since there was illegal alcohol everywhere and especially in areas with no legal outlets also.
“Alcohol consumption fell by 19 percent from 2022 to 2023, the year the opposition pointed out the government increased the issuing of liquor permits,” Siyambalapitiya said in response to a question.
“In 2022 43.3 million litres of alcohol were produced. In 2023 it was 35.1 million litres. This is a drop of 8.2 percent.”
The government issued 5,730 liquor licenses under 30 categories by January 2024; an increase of 214 from 5,516 in January 2023, Siyambalapitiya said in response to an opposition question.
“Of the 214 alcohol licenses granted, 147 are for the tourism industry related parties.”
The minister pointed out that the production of the most commonly used 180ml alcohol bottles (kaaley bothal), which is consumed by lower income earners, had decreased by about 14.5 percent to 15 million.
“In 2022, 57.7 million bottles of 750 ml alcohol were produced and the number has decreased to 39.5 million in 2023.”
“The 375ml bottles produced in 2022 was 46.8 million bottles, in 2023 the amount was 36.6 million bottles.”
“Although there is an opinion that the use of alcohol is increasing due to the regular alcohol sales, the illegal alcohol is prevalent in areas even where there is no regular alcohol,” the minister said.
“The problem is not the availability of legal alcohol, its the spread of illicit alcohol.” He said therefore what should be done is to prevent illicit liquor operations and work to recover lost tax revenue.
“The government will not promote the use of alcohol under any circumstances. We have raised the price of permits. The excise duty on alcohol is also set high. About 75-pct of the sale price is taxes.” (Colombo/May9/2024)