The Hon. Nishantha Jayaweera - Deputy Minister of Economic Development
On behalf of the Finance, Planning and Economic Development Minister, Nishantha Jayaweera provided figures on liquor licensing, production facilities, excise duty, revenue and sales. He stated that 142 new Sri Lanka Tourism Board-approved liquor licences were issued in 2025, covering hotel, restaurant, and beer/ale/wine on-premises categories, with licence-holder details tabled in annexes. He also reported 23 distilleries or manufacturing facilities, an excise duty of Rs. 1,832 on a 750 ml bottle of local arrack at 33.5% ABV, total liquor excise revenue of Rs. 213.389 billion, and 2024 sales quantities by bottle size and product type.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, I provide the following answer.
¶ 02 (a) (i) From 2025.01.01 to 2025.12.31, 142 new licences for sale of liquor with Sri Lanka Tourism Board approval have been issued.
¶ 03 (ii) Types: 1. RB 07 - Tourist Board Approved Hotel Licence. 2. RB 11 - Tourist Board Approved Restaurant Licence. 3. RB 22B - Tourist Board Approved Beer, Ale and Wine (on-premises consumption) Licence.
¶ 04 (iii) Names of licence holders are given in Annex 01. As it is a lengthy annex, Annex 01 is tabled.
¶ 05 (b) (i) Number of distilleries/manufacturing facilities: 23.
¶ 06 (ii) Names of warehouses and manufacturing facilities are in Annex 02, which is placed in the Library.
¶ 07 (iii) Names of licence holders of warehouses and manufacturing facilities are in Annex 03, which is placed in the Library.
¶ 08 (c) (i) On a 750 ml bottle of locally produced arrack at 33.5% ABV, the excise duty is Rs. 1,832/-.
¶ 09 (ii) Total excise (liquor) revenue: Rs. 213.389 billion (Rs. 213,389,597,989).
¶ 10 (iii) Quantities sold in 2024: - Locally produced arrack 750 ml bottles: 29,734,328 - Locally produced arrack 375 ml bottles: 33,049,388 - Locally produced arrack 180 ml bottles: 95,009,539 - Locally produced arrack 700 ml bottles: 7,080 - Locally produced foreign-type liquor 750 ml bottles: 5,445,359 - Locally produced foreign-type liquor 375 ml bottles: 2,635,288 - Locally produced foreign-type liquor 180 ml bottles: 1,778,111
¶ 11 (d) Does not arise.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 5 February 2026 ·No. 23269 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Nishantha Jayaweera - Deputy Minister of Economic Development. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 5 February 2026. No. 23269. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/12916