The health and economic costs linked to alcohol use in Sri Lanka came to Rs. 335 billion in 2025, well above the Rs. 254 billion the state collected in alcohol taxes over the same period, according to figures presented by the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC).
The gap works out at roughly Rs. 81 billion — the amount by which the measured cost of alcohol consumption exceeded the revenue raised from taxing it in a single year.
What the figures cover
Both numbers refer to the same 12-month period. The Rs. 335 billion represents the health and economic burden attributed to alcohol use during 2025, while the Rs. 254 billion is the income generated through alcohol taxation in that year.
ADIC said the data was drawn from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Excise Department, the Ministry of Health, and a study titled The Health and Economic Impacts of Alcohol Control in Sri Lanka, carried out with the involvement of MOVENDI International, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization.
Why it matters
Alcohol duty is one of the more dependable lines in Sri Lanka’s tax base, and excise receipts are routinely cited when the Treasury sets revenue targets. The ADIC comparison cuts against that framing by placing the fiscal return alongside an estimate of what alcohol consumption costs the health system and the wider economy.
The centre has previously pressed for a systematic excise policy rather than ad-hoc duty revisions. ADIC did not publish a breakdown of which cost components — treatment, lost productivity, or alcohol-related injury — account for the largest share of the Rs. 335 billion figure.
