Excise Dept earns Rs. 124 m from fines

Richmond Wijesekera Bentota group correspondent

The Excise Department has earned Rs. 124 million as revenue through fines made on detections countrywide since January 2008 to date.

An Excise Department official told the Daily News that the fines had been earned from 36,538 offences reported in the year.

The offences are 2,233 cases of distilling illicit spirits, 15,349 cases of selling and distributing moonshine, 6,129 cases of selling illicit toddy, 8,054 cases of selling arrack and beer sans permit, 2,185 cases of ganja detections, 704 detections of heroin, and 1,884 detections of illegal cigarettes.

The total revenue earned through the fines is Rs. 124,056,750.

The detections had been conducted under the supervision of Excise Commissioner General Wasantha Hapuarachchi.