The Budget 2024 presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe contained many progressive proposals. Among them was a proposal to revise the opening hours of liquor outlets (commonly called Wine Stores in this country, though they hardly sell any wine per se), which can now be opened only from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., except on designated excise holidays. Restaurants and bars with liquor permits can remain open till 11 p.m.
However, many analysts have pointed out that these opening hours may be an impediment to the tourism industry and for those looking for legal liquor outside these hours.
The late Minister Mangala Samaraweera was a staunch advocate of longer opening hours for wine stores and they were kept open till 10 p.m. for a couple of days until then President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the Excise Department to enforce the usual opening hours.
Minister Samaraweera even proposed that liquor outlets should be permitted to open their doors on Poya days and certain other excise holidays, perhaps with the exception of World Temperance Day (October 3). However, no headway was made with regard to this somewhat controversial proposal, perhaps due to the objections of religious leaders.
In more recent times, Tourism State Minister Diana Gamage has more or less proposed the same changes to our archaic excise laws. The response from religious dignitaries and intellectuals has been muted this time around, which may be one reason why the Government is planning to go ahead at least with the revision of opening hours of liquor shops.
Discussions have already started in this regard, Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has said. This is indeed welcome news as we cannot hope to be in sync with the rest of the world if we perpetually cling on to religious and cultural ethos for every issue under the Sun.
In fact, Buddhist countries such as Thailand and Cambodia permit the sale of soft liquor such as beer and wine 24/7 in ordinary stores, with varying hours for hard liquor sales. Yet, one does not see any drunken behaviour in public places in these countries.
State Minister Siyambalapitiya, addressing the 23rd Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Excise Officers’ Association, has rightly said that certain laws in the country regarding liquor also encourage people to turn to illegal alcohol. The Minister said legal liquor sales have grown by 50 percent in 20 years, whereas illegal liquor has grown by astonishing 500 percent.
Several reasons can be attributed to this scary situation. First, even the basic locally produced varieties of high Alcohol By Volume (ABV) legal liquor, at over Rs.3,000 per 750 ml bottle, are out of reach of the ordinary wage earner.
This drives him to the nearest moonshine spot, where the rotgut is much cheaper.
In a misguided attempt to earn more excise revenue via higher liquor prices, the Government actually ends up spending more money to treat the alcohol-induced diseases contracted by those addicted to Kasippu.
The illicit brewers do not pay a red cent in taxes to the Government, so it actually loses twice in monetary terms. No alcohol, legal or illegal, is good for one’s health, but the Kasippu brewers do not have any quality controls and use many harmful substances in their crude distillation pots.
There is also a discrepancy in the spread of wine stores in the island. According to the Minister, there is one liquor shop for every 6,000 people in the Mullaitivu District, but there is just one liquor shop for one million people in the Kandy District.
In some areas, people have to travel about 80 kilometres or even to the next Province to find a liquor shop. This automatically drives them to seek refuge in the arms of the illegal brewers, who are virtually everywhere.
It is also time to reconsider some of the conditions stipulated in the current excise laws for the establishment of liquor shops, such as not permitting them within a certain distance of a school or a place of worship. After all, in some areas, there are schools and places of worship literally every few metres.
One solution is to let all supermarkets islandwide sell local and foreign liquor, as they are generally well insulated from the local foot traffic and have strict conditions of entry to their enclosed liquor outlets. As an added bonus, the supermarkets are not known for adulterating the drinks, unlike some of the ordinary wine stores.
There is no question that legal liquor prices, at least those of locally produced high ABV types, have to be brought down to beat the Kasippu brewers at their own game and for the Excise Department to earn more revenue.
There is also no point in sending foreign liquor prices to the stratosphere as the Excise Department will not get any revenue if the bottles gather dust on the shelves. Drinking (responsibly) is a matter of choice in a democracy. Reasonable prices and a rational liquor policy will please both the imbibers and the Exchequer.
