By making legal drinks like arrack and gin difficult to obtain and prohibitive in cost the government has compelled the poor to turn increasingly to kassippu. |
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Now that corruption in high political and public sector circles is being regularly exposed by the Supreme Court it is time to see how it has operated in the illicit liquor industry.
The first thing to recognize is that kassippu kills. The second is to recognize that the Law on Alcohol and Tobacco (and the establishment of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol – NATA ) has given a huge boost to the kassippu industry. This is the natural and inevitable consequence of the law and government fiscal policy. By making legal drinks like arrack and gin difficult to obtain and prohibitive in cost the government has compelled the poor to turn increasingly to kassippu. Drinking is one of the few sources of pleasure and relaxation available to the poor.
Those who are not desperately poor do not have the imagination (some may say compassion) to understand this. No amount of preaching from pulpits or in temples can alter this inescapable fact. One would have thought that this would have been obvious to the thinkers behind the NATA law and the sponsors of it like the JHU.
This strange ingenuousness, coupled with the fact that kassippu mudalalis are believed by many to be major donors to Buddhist temples in the hope that the clergy would pressurize the government into ushering in total prohibition, should give us cause in trying to figure out the motivations of the politicians (and their advisers) who have instigated the NATA law. By the way, total prohibition is the paradise that kassippu mudalalis yearn for.
To those who do not know why, I would recommend some research (through the Internet perhaps) into the rise of gangsterism and violent crime that the experiment with Prohibition in the US spawned in the 1930’s. They should go into Google and click on “Prohibition” and there read an article by the Cato Institute titled “Alcohol Prohibition was a total failure”.
This is required reading because Kassippu mudalalis and a section of the clergy are determined to bring in Total Prohibition that would be a disaster for our already beleaguered nation.
There are a few things that the thinking public must realize. The first is that tobacco and alcohol are vastly different in their impact on health although the NATA Law treats them both the same. Tobacco is cumulative in its effect and is damaging even in small quantities, and very addictive even with moderate indulgence. Alcohol on the other hand (and by that I mean Ethyl Alcohol - not Methyl Acohol a deadly ingredient of Kassippu) is now recognised by the medical profession to be positively beneficial in moderate quantities. Doctors now recommend one or two drinks of Ethyl Acohol based drinks, a day.
This is considered not merely tolerable but beneficial. Methyl Alcohol, on the other hand, is a deadly poison that blinds when it does not kill.
The sponsors of the NATA Act have been indirectly responsible for numerous deaths including the catastrophe that took place in September when about 19 people died after drinking Kassippu. This was not the first such catastrophe and will probably not be the last.
Two years ago, a study was done by the highly respected Institute of Policy Studies into the alcohol industry, and some of their findings published in their Report “The State of the Alcohol Industry” dated 21st March, 2006 were:
* It is a fallacy that Sri Lanka has one of the highest per capita liquor consumptions in the world. In fact it is one of the lowest.
* Only 20% of the liquor consumed in Sri Lanka is legal. The balance 80% is illegal.
* There are only about 2,000 legal wine retailers while there are an estimated 200,000 illicit selling points.
* Government revenue from the legal liquor industry for 2004 was Rs 23 billion.
* A ban on advertising, according to the experience of other countries, will not lead to less consumption.
* An advertising ban in Sri Lanka will lead to further dominance by the leading players and further price increases which will increase the consumption of illicit liquor. Excise duty generated by the legal liquor industry in 2005, excluding VAT, Turnover Tax, Income tax and other levies, was about Rs 14.5 billion (Excise Report 2005). On the basis that the illicit industry is four times larger than the legal industry this would imply that the government is losing about Rs 58 billion annually in excise duties alone. When these figures are digested even the most obtuse of us would realize what a vast reservoir of cash the captains of the illicit liquor industry have with which to suborn politicians, the police and other public servants, and make massive donations to the clergy.
The occasional arrests of kassippu dealers are the tip of the iceberg; and may even be a part of the conspiracy to rob the government while creating the impression that the illicit industry is being contained, if not eliminated.
Now that the government is no longer dependent on the JHU and JVP for its survival, it should re-examine its failed policies, foremost among which are the NATA Law and the shortsighted continuous increase in excise and other duties on alcohol. I can confidently predict that a reduction in excise duties and other such levies will result in an increase in revenue, just as happened in the case of the decrease in income tax rates many years ago.
A vigorous campaign to wipe out the illicit outlets, led by a dedicated special Task Force, will reap enormous rewards to government and make a significant contribution to its revenue.
Apart from that the health of the poor will improve and expenditure on health services will decrease. And as an added bonus, the level of crime will decrease. And all that is required to achieve this is the courage to grasp the nettle.
As there are more ways than one to skin a cat, it would not be necessary to abolish the law at this stage. The easier course would be to tacitly downplay it and reduce it to a dead letter.
(The writer, a veteran business leader, is the Chairman of ID Lanka, a liquor producer).
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