A restaurant in Jaffna has been fined Rs. 950,000 for selling a one-litre bottle of drinking water at Rs. 200, well above its maximum retail price of Rs. 120.
The case was heard on Tuesday, August 25, and the fine was imposed on the restaurant’s owner. The court further ordered that the owner serve six months in prison if the fine is not paid, the Daily Mirror reported.
How the case was made
The violation was detected during an inspection by officers of the Consumer Affairs Authority’s Jaffna District Office, carried out after the authority received information that the restaurant was selling bottled water at an excessive price. Officers confirmed that a bottle carrying a controlled price of Rs. 120 had been sold to a consumer for Rs. 200 — a mark-up of about 67 percent. Legal proceedings followed.
The fine is roughly 12,000 times the Rs. 80 overcharge on the single bottle that triggered the case, reflecting the penalty scale available to courts under consumer protection law rather than the value of the individual transaction.
A repeat offence
The Daily Mirror reported that the same restaurant had previously been fined by the court for selling drinking water above the permitted price, making this a repeat violation of the same rule. Neither outlet identified the establishment by name.
The two reports differ slightly on the court: Ada Derana attributes the ruling to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court, while the Daily Mirror places the hearing before the Jaffna Additional Magistrate’s Court. Both agree on the date, the amount and the underlying facts.
Part of a wider enforcement run
Bottled water has become a recurring target for the authority. Three Jaffna businesses were fined a combined Rs. 668,000 days earlier for overpricing water, soda and rice, and the CAA separately took action over overpriced water sold on Colombo–Jaffna train canteens in July. The authority also seized thousands of water bottles carrying fake SLS certification at Avissawella this month.
The Consumer Affairs Authority urged consumers to check both the printed price and the stipulated maximum retail price before buying, to obtain and keep a receipt, and to report suspected violations to its hotline on 1977 during office hours.
