Excise Dept awaits recommendations from President's Office on opening liquor shops

The Excise Department is awaiting instructions from the President's Office regarding when and where to allow liquor shops to open once resumption of civilian life and office work begins from May 11. 

Deputy Commissioner of Excise Kapila Kumarasinghe stated that they are awaiting recommendations from the President's Office to open liquor stores in areas outside the "high risk" districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara and Puttalam. 

The Excise Department is currently losing Rs 500 million a day in tax revenue due to the closure of liquor shops. Mr Kumarasinghe said the department had lost close to Rs 20 billion in total during the entire period that liquor shops had been closed. 

Meanwhile, Time Online learns that owners of liquor shops in certain districts such as Nuwara Eliya and Badulla have noted that they do not have much stocks left to customers even if liquor shops are opened. This is because they were almost completely emptied by customers when liquor shops were opened on April 20 on instructions from the Excise Department.

On April 19, the department gave the go-ahead for liquor shops in districts where curfew had been lifted to open from April 20. However, the President's Office announced on April 21 that liquor shops would continue to remain closed until further notice. While no reason was given to the move, it came after large queues formed outside liquor shops in many districts, with customers showing little or no regard to health and social distancing guidelines issued by authorities.