An organized group made a racket of sticking stickers on liquor bottles while taxing the country to such an extent that the professionals and the general public were tired of the tax frauds of nearly 80 billion rupees a year.
Parliament member Dr. Harsha De Silva emphasizes that there has been a huge accusation of fraud and these fraudsters will not be allowed to escape.
In a press conference held in Colombo, he emphasized that the affixing of security stickers has been implemented since 2019 without proper evaluation of whether to print a digital code or stick stickers on alcohol bottles.
“Now 85% of liquor bottles have a digital code. 15% stickers. Around 100,000 bottles of alcohol have been seized due to allegations of fraud. Do you know what is revealed here? Officially, when 100 stickers are printed, 10 to 15 more sticker sets should be printed. Then, there are about 10 to 15 more bottles with the same number in the market. If you check whether the sticker is real or not, the sticker is real. But, there are other bottles with the same sticker. Many people say that high-ranking excise officials are involved in this.
Dr. Harsha de Silva emphasized here that it is alleged that the government is losing about 40% of the taxes due due to this fraud and that they are ready to investigate this deeply and take action against the fraudsters.
Some suggestions!
Dr. Harsha de Silva also offered some alternative suggestions to prevent this alleged fraud.
“We suggest to dial only the digital code. Then it’s hard to cheat.
The other thing is that this digital code should look right. Can’t see now. Now you need a special laser torch to take care of this. Who has a laser torch?
Another suggestion we make is to put two digital codes of two related organizations in two places on the bottle. Then cheating is not easy.
The MP also disclosed about another fraud allegedly committed by pasting stickers on liquor bottles.
“The cost of this sticker is 1.90 rupees. The cost of the digital code is 20 cents. However, it is said that even if it is 20 cents, they will take 1.90 rupees. 85% beats the digital code. How much has the government lost? That money should be recovered immediately.
