YANGON — Yangon Region authorities have banned the wholesale and retail of foreign alcohol in the commercial capital in an apparent move to tackle fake booze.
The General Administration Department, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, issues two types of liquor licenses: FL 17, which allows drinking on the premises for establishments such as bars; and FL 12, which does not allow drinking on the premises and is granted to liquor shops and the like.
The ban applied to FL 12 license holders only.
On Sept. 29 and 30, officials with the General Administration Department, Food and Drug Administration, Internal Revenue Department, Consumer Affairs Department and Trade Department summoned foreign alcohol sellers across Yangon to inform them of the ban.
“They said they received complaints about fake foreign liquor and they made field inspections. They summoned FL 12 license holders and took attendance and told them not to sell any more,” U Tun Tun Aye, vice chairman of the Myanmar Bartenders Association, told reporters at a press conference in Yangon on Monday called by affected license holders.
FL 12 license holders have to pay the Internal Revenue Department a liquor tax of 1.5 million kyats ($980) a year. FL 17 license holders pay 2.4 million kyats ($1,567). The department says there are about 2,200 FL 12 and FL 17 license holders across the region.
Distributors said the ban will force liquor shops to cut down on staff and reduce government tax revenue.
“Now is not yet the time to impose the ban. This might create a huge impact on both businessmen and the government. The amount of tax the government receives from [liquor] licenses and bottles is not small,” said U Kaung Min Khant, general secretary of the Myanmar Restauranteurs Association’s Yangon branch.
He said Myanmar had little in the way of nightlife to attract tourists with and that the ban could deal another blow to the travel industry as well.
Liquor imports have long been banned in Myanmar. Distributors previously got around this in part by importing through hotels, which are allowed to bring in foreign liquor, though the government cracked down on the practice in late 2012 with a series of high-profile raids.
The Special Commodity Tax Law, enacted in January 2016, did away with the ban.
In March and June, police seized hundreds of bottles of fake foreign-branded liquor in Yangon, according to state-run media.
Authorities warned that wholesalers and retailers who continue to sell foreign alcohol will have all their stock seized, be levied a fine equal to the value of the seized products and face three years in prison. They also offered to reward informants with 20 percent of the value of the products seized in a raid based on their tips, and department officials who make related arrests with 30 percent.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
