Liquor licences obtained without the required Ministerial approval during the years 2017 and 2018 face cancellation if procedural requirements under the Excise Ordinance have not been met, the Excise Department announced yesterday.This follows action by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera who has given Excise Commissioner-General H.G.Sumanasinghe two weeks to investigate and report back to him as to how liquor licenses have been issued by the Excise Department without his approval during 2017 and 2018, a Finance Ministry communique said.
The protocol followed so far by the Excise Department, when issuing liquor licenses, has been to obtain the approval of the subject minister or to inform the subject minister in this regard.