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Call fresh tenders for security features on liquor bottles: House committee

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The Parliamentary Ways and Means Committee has recommended that the Excise Department call a fresh tender for a new security feature for liquor bottles following widespread issues over the current security sticker supplied by an Indian company.

The Committee, which presented its first report to Parliament this week, identified many issues related to the implementation of the security feature, Committee Chairman Patali Champika Ranawaka told the Sunday Times. “The security sticker is supposed to be foolproof but we found that it has been widely forged,” he said.

The Indian company, Madras Security Printers (MSP), won the contract in 2018 to supply security stickers to be printed on liquor bottles.

Acting on instructions from the Ways and Means Committee, the Excise Department has been carrying out island-wide raids over the past few weeks to take into custody liquor bottles suspected to contain fake security stickers. The scam is believed to have resulted in the loss of millions of rupees in tax revenue to the Excise Department.

As of Friday (8), 43,776 liquor bottles that were taken into custody have been confirmed to contain fake security stickers. Fines amounting to Rs. 43.4 million have been imposed for bottles that have been identified, Excise Commissioner Kapila Kumarasinghe told the Sunday Times.

The fine consists of compounding fees, defaulted excise charges and late fees.

Tests are continuing to identify whether other bottles taken into custody from the market also contain fake security stickers.

The vast majority of liquor bottles found with fake security stickers were 180ml bottles, according to officials.

The cost of a genuine security sticker is Rs. 1.80. The tax revenue that is lost to the government through a fake security sticker however, is Rs. 2,900 each for a large 750ml liquor bottle, Mr. Ranawaka said.

He noted that the Ways and Means Committee had identified several other shortcomings in the usage of the security sticker. The primary concern was that there was no homogenous identification system for all 23 liquor manufacturing companies. Four companies, including two that account for 73% of the liquor market share, are using a digital image feature while others are using the security sticker. The companies using the digital feature have argued that pasting security stickers is not practical for them due to their speedy production process. Accordingly, Cabinet approval had been granted in 2021 enabling the usage of either a paper-based foolproof sticker or digital image print in the liquor bottles.

The Committee, however, has recommended that the Excise Department take measures to include all liquor manufacturers in the system of using the security tax stamp.

The current security sticker system is also not customer-friendly, with only Excise Department officials having the technology to identify genuine stickers from fake ones. As such, the Committee has recommended the introduction of a mobile application with QR-based technology to enable customers to easily identify fake security stickers. Accordingly, a customer must be able to scan the QR code on the security sticker to verify whether the product they are purchasing is genuine or not.

Given the issues regarding delays in tax collection, the Committee has also called for the introduction of an automatic taxation system enabling immediate tax collection after the completion of the production process.

“We have made our recommendations (to call for a fresh tender). The decision is up to the Finance Ministry. If it does not call a fresh tender in line with the recommendations we have made, it will have to explain to us why,” said Mr. Ranawaka.

Meanwhile, the Ways and Means Committee has further recommended that the government expedite the establishment of an Integrated Revenue Management System (IRMS) which links different government agencies including the Excise Department.

Attempts to contact Finance State Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitya proved futile.

(sundaytimes.lk)

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Assets of 02 police officers to be probed

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Assets of two prominent police officers are to be probed after authorities received a number of complaints, highly placed sources in the government say.

One officer in question is a DIG while the other is a SSP, reports add.

The Police Illegal Assets And Property Investigation Division are conducting further investigations.

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AG seeks CID probe into social media smear campaign against his staff

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The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has opened a probe following a complaint by Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe that his staff have been unduly targeted by false allegations on social media.

The AG’s instruction to the CID came after several of his staff complained to him over the allegation on social media.

Particularly targeted are senior AG’s Department officials awaiting promotions, sources said.

In one of the posts, a senior officer was accused of being supportive of granting bail to Thamil Makkal Viduthal Puligal (TMVP) leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillaiyan, when his fundamental rights application over his arrest was taken up. During the hearing of the FR case, the matter of bail was not even considered, the sources said.

Another allegation was that in a case related to the suspended Police Chief Deshabandu Tennakoon, the AG prevented a senior officer from representing the department and instead sent a junior officer. However, on the particular day, the senior officer was indisposed, the sources said.

These allegations surface as the AG’s Department has filed more than 600 new indictments in High Courts so far this year, while the Bribery Commission has also referred several bribery and corruption cases to the AG for prosecution.

(sundaytimes.lk)
(This story, originally published by sundaytimes.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

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19-yr. old dies after falling from elevator

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A 19-year-old youth has died after falling from a service elevator at a hotel in the Pannai area, in the Jaffna Police Division.

According to the police, the incident had occurred last night (June 21) and the deceased has been identified as a resident of Nirveli, Jaffna.

According to investigations, the youth was employed at the hotel and had been using the service elevator -intended for transporting goods.

Further investigations are underway.

This incident follows a similar case recently reported from a hotel in Moratuwa last week.

Related News :

19-yr.-old dies after hotel elevator collapses

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