By Saman Indrajith

SJB Matara District MP Buddhika Pathirana told Parliament yesterday that a tax scam where fake revenue stickers were pasted on bottles of alcohol to avoid paying tax was carried out with the assistance of senior officers of the Excise Department.

MP Pathirana said that he had received information that the fake stickers had been distributed from a house belonging to an Excise Superintendent.

“We have information of another incident when a group of Excise Officers went to raid a liquor shop, where fake stickers are issued in Passekudah, an Additional Commissioner of the Excise Department asked them over the phone to abandon the raid. The owner of the house and the one who gave the call were two officers accused in a bribery case in 2004. I call for an impartial probe,” the MP said.

MP Pathirana said that according to his information, fake stickers had been found in nearly 100 retail outlets around the country.

“Bottles of liquor with counterfeit stickers have been found among taverns in Jaffna, Galle, Ratnapura and Kahawatte during raids,” he said.

Pathirana said that liquor licences were given to some with links to excise officers.

State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said that an independent investigation would be conducted into the alleged tax scam.

Minister Siyambalapitiya said that the sticker was a budget proposal of 2016 to block the sale of tax-unpaid alcohol by licensed firms. The contract to print stickers had been awarded to an Indian company in 2017 at the rate of 1,000 stickers for 5.99 dollars. The next bid was 14.99 dollars. There was an appeal and a court case and it was awarded to the lower bidder, he said.

“At first, we saw good results. The excise revenue increased by Rs 19 billion. The liquor production increased by 11 percent. However, now we find that there are some problems. We are conducting an investigation on the orders of the President. The CID has been called in. We have enlisted the support of the Government Analyst. The Excise Officers have conducted raids in all provinces and detected counterfeit stickers. Action will be taken against those who engage in this scam without considering their posts,” Minister Siyambalapitiya said.