By Saman Indrajith

State Minister of Money and Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal, on Friday (4) assured Samagi Jana Balavegaya MP Buddhika Pathirana that immediate remedial action would be taken in respect of shocking revelation that some unscrupulous businessmen produced a toxic brew in the name of manufacturing artificial toddy, and corrupt Excise Officers exploited the Technical Crime Report to deprive the government Rs. 80 billion in revenue due.

MP Pathirana:

 “The police and the STF commandos raid illicit toddy distilleries amidst hardships, in spite of threats to their lives. Thereafter they hand over their findings to the Excise Officers to take legal action. The Excise Officers do not take the culprits to court, and instead release them filing a Technical Crime Report (TCR). Under the TCR the racketeers only have to pay a skimpy sum by way of a composition fee.”  

Pathirana said that as per Sections 49, 50 and 52 of the antiquated Excise Ordinance, the police and the STF had been barred from producing artificial racketeers and their toxic brew in courts. “After the raid, the police and STF have to hand them over to the Excise Department. Not all Excise officers are corrupt; some of them, in fact, produce the lawbreakers in court. Even in such instances the reward money for the detection and raid are not given to the police and the STF; it goes to the Excise officers who handle only the legal part of the raid.”

MP Pathirana called on State Minister of Money and Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms Ajith Nivard Cabraal to amend Sections 49, 50 and 52 of the Excise Ordinance to enable the police to prosecute those engaged in producing artificial toddy.

The Minister promised that he would get his ministry officials to work on it.

MP Pathirana said that it was the third time he was raising a question on the large-scale racket. “I asked two recent questions from you in this House in the last couple of weeks related to other aspects of this scam. I gathered a lot of facts and details after studying this issue for a considerable time. I also tabled some documents and sent to you copies of them. I also know that your ministry officials are tied up with the budget process, but could you at least appoint a committee to investigate the matters I raised on those two occasions.”

Minister Cabraal:

“I really appreciate the hard work of the MP and I am thankful to him for raising this matter. I have instructed Excise Department officials and the Secretary to the Ministry to commence a thorough study on the matter and report to me. I assure you that I will personally attend to this matter.”

MP Pathirana:

“Since I raised this some of the racketeers have got hold of some Finance Ministry and Excise officials and are working surreptitiously to do away with the mechanisms in place to ascertain information about the toddy industry. Only around one and a half litres of toddy could be extracted from a single coconut palm and it could vary slightly owing to factors such as climate, humidity and season. The amount being sold by the licence holders varies from the actual amount extracted from palms. A difference is in the region of as 60,000-70,000 litres. So, it is obvious that toddy comes from other sources.”

Reading out a document, Minister Cabraal said that it had been mentioned in it that the approved production capacity for each bottled toddy manufacturer would be the total expected toddy yield from the number of trees licensed for tapping.

MP Pathirana:

It is that stipulation that they are trying to do away with. Once it is removed, we may never be able to guess the amount they had illicitly produced. Will you promise to prevent these businessmen and corrupt officials from removing that stipulation?

Minister Cabraal: I apologize for not having a detailed and complete answer today. But I will study this and inform this House of all details in the future date.

Responding to MP Pathirana, the Minister said the toddy industry was found in the districts of Kalutara, Gampaha, Puttalam, Badulla, Moneragala, Hambantota, Anuradhapura and all districts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. As at Dec 31, last year there had been 3,094 licensed toddy tappers in the country but there was no information about the number of employees engaged in the supportive services of the industry. There were 32 licensed toddy producers in the country as at Dec 31, 2019.