LNP – Leading liquor store owner booked for promoting booze sales through Facebook

A leading liquor store chain owner cum hotelier had been booked by the Department of Excise yesterday for promoting booze sales through Facebook by using attractive discounts, thus violating the NATA Act. The Excise also took a large stock of foreign liquor kept in possession sans paying duty,

The Excise following information that promotional liquor sales being carried out through a social media platform had raided a popular wine store in Borella and seized 128 bottles of a range of foreign liquor including expensive whiskey, brandy and vodka valued at over Rs.3 million (3, 000,000).

The departmental sources told the Daily Mirror that none of the liquor bottles bore the Excise security sticker for paying duty and it was suspected that the owner had not purchased the stocks from the licenced foreign liquor sales agents in the country but through unscrupulous means.

When contacted, a senior official said promoting liquor or its sales through any media or social media is a punishable offence under the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act.

Meanwhile, another liquor store of the same chain in Battaramulla had been raided by the Excise officials violating Excise Ordinance.

The seized stock was suspected to be kept for sales during the oncoming new year season, especially when two dry days have been announced by the Department of Excise.

Further investigations are being conducted by the Excise team under the instructions of its Commissioner General U L Udaya Kumara Perera.