• Col. MC also rejects appeal 

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court (MC) has sentenced the W.M. Mendis Distilleries Director Arjun Aloysius and two others to six months in prison for the said company defaulting on the payment of Rs. 3.5 billion in Value Added Tax (VAT).

The relevant case was filed against the Company by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) for defaulting on the payment of Rs. 3.5 billion in taxes owed to the Government during the period from 2016 to 2019.

The case was taken up before Colombo Additional Magistrate Bandara Ilangasinghe yesterday (14).

On 14 November 2023, the Court had ordered the defendants to complete the due payments. The imprisonment was imposed over the failure to complete the relevant payments as per the Court order.

Meanwhile, the Court has rejected an appeal submitted by Aloysius and two others, to be forwarded to the Colombo High Court, seeking to invalidate the prison sentence imposed on them by the Court yesterday over VAT evasion. Through this appeal, the defendants have also requested permission to pay the due taxes in instalments.