The finance ministry has no ability to curb the stealing of public money by corrupt excise officers printing and selling counterfeit foolproof stickers to liquor producers, Matara District SJB MP Buddhika Pathirana told Parliament on Thursday with Justice and Prison Reform Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe strongly backing him.Pathirana alleged that this racket in which some politicians too are involved in the racket costing the state Rs. 150 billion revenue.

“The green, blue, blue and red and maroon governments since independence have inherited a national budget deficit of Rs 2,400 billion as of now. Some individuals and groups in those governments have siphoned funds meant for development leaving a huge debt burden on the people and unborn generations,” Pathirana said.

“The liquor bottle sticker fraud is the most recent example of robbery of public money by politicians from the green and blue parties combined. The Power and Energy Minister took only couple of weeks to introduce the QR Code to regulate fuel distribution.

“When we pump 20 liters of fuel to our vehicles, we receive an SMS on our mobiles and there is a record. However, the boastful finance ministry is yet unable to control billions of rupees defrauded by corrupt politicians and some officials. They cannot stop this because the very same officials are in the racket siphoning tax revenue.

“The QR code printed on liquor bottle stickers cannot be read by QR scanners. Excise Department officials are involved in this racket of selling counterfeit stickers. Recently an arrest was made and a stock of counterfeit stickers found. But the Excise officers let the crooks get off with a spot fine.

Printing these counterfeit stickers is a scam similar to printing counterfeit currency notes. The only MP from the government ranks who opposed this was Justice and Prison Reforms Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe.”

Minister Rajapakshe: The printer of these stickers known as Madras Security Printing Company is blacklisted in many countries. I filed a case before the Court of Appeal against giving the contract to this company. However, the court decision was not in our favour. Now the company is printing stickers and selling them to the Lankan government and to other parties.

MP Pathirana: The officer junta involved in this racket is strong and powerful. The contract awarded to this company ends in a month. But the Excise Department is trying to extend it. These excise officers have been able to mislead the minister and state ministers of finance.

We have the ability to print our currency notes in Biyagama, but printing the stickers is given to India. Curse be upon responsible excise officers and their offspring for this robbery of public money. Their savings are not in Lankan banks but in the US.

Minister Rajapakshe: The reason for the introduction of this sticker was to get a correct assessment on the amount of liquor being released to the market by the liquor producers. They did not give us correct statistics. The rough idea was that the government loses around 40 billion rupees because the liquor producers do not give correct figures. To prevent this, the proposal for fool-proof stickers was made in 2017. But for printing the stickers they have selected one of the most corrupt companies in the world. Our Excise Department officers had no other company in the world but this to give the sticker contract. We now lose at least 60 billion rupees.