Additional Commissioner of Excise, Kapila Kumarasinghe told to the media that the actual value of the liquor contained in a bottle of Extra special liquor (Gal), which is sold for Rs.2940/- in the open market, is only Rs.294/-.
He further said that an amount of Rs. 2646/- has been set aside as the tax imposed by the government and the businessman’s profit per Gal bottle. According to the report, alcohol tax, VAT, pay-as-you-go tax etc. are charged on alcohol and the profit of the businessman is relatively small compared to taxes.
It was recently revealed in a discussion held between State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and alcohol producers that the price of alcohol has gone up due to these high taxes and therefore the sale of alcohol has fallen by about 40%.