The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, with your leave, I will clarify without using the Hon. Member’s time; I will take a minute from the Government side. The NPP Government has not issued any new liquor licenses. Secondly, many of the licenses currently held were issued in the final months by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe; a large portion of the existing ones are of that batch, as has been recorded in Hansard. Thirdly, once a license is legally issued, it becomes a legal instrument. Even if we are politically opposed, its cancellation is a legal matter and cannot be done by force. However, there are administrative steps that can be taken. I cannot detail them here; if you meet me, I can share, to the extent I know, the administrative and social measures to halt such operations. We are cleaning up the legacy dirt. If we try to stop legally issued licenses by force, there will be a legal issue. But there are administrative and social levers available. Please take note.

¶ 02 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member. We yield our time.