Practical policy on alcohol
The new Finance Minister is not averse to political controversy and making unconventional remarks on matters of public interest. While some of them are utterly abstract and controversial, to say the least, some are home-truths. You might say, he says as it is. His most recent statement that liquor sales on the day before full moon Poya holidays are higher than on normal days is correct. The monthly Poya is a day for some to meditate, and for others to imbibe.
We have been imposing some haphazard policies on alcohol: One year the duty on beer is dropped to wean tipplers from hard liquor to soft liquor, whereupon breweries imported new machinery and then the duty is slapped back again in the next Budget; bars are even closed when a popular musician passes away.
Either people stock up or buy the booze freely in the dingy back lanes of the city on such days. Tourists are made to curse when they can’t get a glass of wine to go with their dinner at hotels. Even in strict Islamic countries they are getting relaxed about the consumption of alcohol and during the recent Ramadan fasting hours non-Muslims were permitted to eat in secluded areas in public places.
There is a crying need to get rid of various misconceptions on the current liquor policy. Chicago tried prohibition in the 1930s only to find it giving rise to boot-legging and crime. Morarji Desai introduced this in India in the late 1970s, and it didn’t work. Today, the Indian states of Gujarat and Bihar are ‘dry states’ because alcoholism is rife.
Whether one is a teetotaller as the former Finance Minister was, or a connoisseur of choice wines as the incumbent is, is immaterial. They must not be guided by those in the hooch business. Former President J. R. Jayewardene said that if the Buddha couldn’t stop people drinking alcohol, how could he? Former Finance Minister Dr. N. M. Perera started the State Distilleries Corporation to give the poor man a good arrack at an affordable price. Strangely, the profit-making corporation was privatised and began adulterating the arrack at its source – the distillery. Then, it got further adulterated at the taverns.
The profits are enormous from this business and some of the profit goes to fund local politicians. That is what must be stopped. The State then tries to milk revenue by way of periodically raising excise taxes altruistically claiming it is aimed at cutting consumption. The end result is that the ordinary man is forced to molasses and moonshine and an astronomical rise in the use of narcotics in the country. Narco dealers have even entered Parliament or fund MPs. That is what must be stopped.
Today’s excise taxes have encouraged top of the range brands of whiskeys to be cloned and sold here. People buy this putrid stuff as the genuine product is too expensive; the net result is that the State doesn’t receive excise revenue it expects and the consumer is drinking poison.
Let’s have a realistic and practical alcohol policy that is neither too rigid nor too liberal, mindful that there are far more lethal intoxicants in the market that are even more harmful and are being targeted at little children as well. No. 08, Hunupitiya Cross Road, Colombo 02. P.O. Box 1136, Colombo editor@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2331276 news@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479332, 2328889, 2331276 features@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479312, 2328889,2331276 pictures@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479323, 2479315 sports@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479311 bt@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479319 funtimes@sundaytimes.wnl.lk - 2479337, 2331276 2479540, 2479579, 2479725 2479629, 2477628, 2459725