11^th September 2021

Excise Department of Sri Lanka was established under the Excise Ordinance No.08 of 1912 with the key functions of collecting excise revenue, uncovering excise crimes, uncovering tobacco crimes, uncovering narcotic crimes and implementation of policies. It is one of the main regulatory and law-enforcing government agencies related to tobacco and alcohol control and protecting Sri Lankan citizens from harms caused by these products. Tobacco and alcohol together prematurely kill around 33,000 Sri Lankans per year, causing a wide range of personal, social and economic adverse effects at individual, household, community and national levels. Therefore, the vectors of these harms, the tobacco and alcohol industries, should be monitored and regulated keeping with the best interests of the people, and their government that represents them. It is important to unequivocally note that protecting these commercial industries or acting in their interests is not the function or the duty of the Excise Department or the Ministry of Finance.

On 7^th September 2021, Hon. Minister Basil Rajapaksa has made a statement in the parliament on “making healthy addictive substances available to the public” being one of the functions of the Excise department. This is a misinterpretation of the functions of the department stated by the Excise ordinance while indirectly promoting use of alcohol as a “healthy product”. None of the addictive substances, including alcohol and tobacco, are healthy, and that is a widely known indisputable scientific fact. It was really unfortunate that a senior politician and a key minister had to make such a statement in the Parliament, the highest legislative institution in the country. This misleading statement not only violates the fundamentals and the spirit of the Excise Ordinance but also promotes the image of the alcohol industry, an industry that causes severe damage to the wellbeing of Sri Lankan citizens. Therefore, we plead the Sri Lankan Government as advocates of public health and tobacco, alcohol, drug control in Sri Lanka, to be more attentive in making such statements in the future.

We further request the government to employ an evidence-based rational tax policy for alcohol, aiming to at least cover the socio-economic and health costs it causes. Raising tax and making alcohol less affordable is a powerful and an effective strategy in controlling alcohol use. This largely under-utilised strategy in Sri Lanka is a win-win one as it also increases the government revenue in the short to medium term. Therefore, under the government’s obligation to implement scientific and rational policies to protect its citizens, their health and the economy of the country, we strongly urge the government of Sri Lanka and the honourable minister to correct this misleading statement. We also strongly advocate for the implementation of a scientific excise tax system to control alcohol use in Sri Lanka with dual benefits of increasing government tax revenue and reducing alcohol related health care costs.