The country’s alcohol producers have expressed their strong opposition to the decision of the Excise Department to reduce the percentage of alcohol waste during the production and storage of alcohol from 1.5% to 0.1%.
They say that due to this sudden decision of the Excise Department, leading alcohol production companies, which already provide a huge tax revenue of Rs. 23 billion to the government, will have to pay additional taxes once again.
They say that due to this, even the continuation of their production activities in the future may face a serious crisis. Stating this, the relevant companies have informed the Excise Department of their opposition in writing.
Producers who point out that alcohol evaporation occurs naturally during the production and storage process of alcohol say that a significant amount of alcohol evaporates when the spirits are transferred to bottling machines and when bottled using modern machinery. Even the stocks of alcohol taken into custody by excise officers for referral to the government analyst are calculated under this percentage of wastage.
Liquor producers further emphasize that it is not fair to arbitrarily lower the percentage of wastage approved by the previous notification No. 151, and that before changing the percentages in this way, it is essential to conduct a practical and accurate scientific investigation into the manner in which alcohol is wasted, the factors affecting it and the scientific factors.