Sri Lanka, Dec. 5 -- Leader of the House, Minister Bimal Ratnayake stated in Parliament yesterday that 361 liquor licences have been issued since January 1 of this year (2024).

The Leader of the House also stated that 172 liquor licences under the FL/4 category (retail wine stores) were among them.

He stated this while expressing his views yesterday during the debate on the Government Policy statement presented by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake recently.

He also emphasized that former President Ranil Wickremesinghe used the liquor licences as a sort of a bribe to encourage MPs to switch parties to crossover to the Gas Cylinder side those days.

The Leader of the House also said that the list of names of those who have obtained liqu...