The liquor manufacturing licenses of W.M. Mendis & Company will be suspended, with eight out of the ten licenses granted to the company being revoked, it was revealed to the Appeal Court today (4).

The suspension follows the company’s failure to settle its outstanding Value Added Tax (VAT) arrears, with a deadline set for 30 November.

This development comes after a recent ruling by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, which sentenced W.M. Mendis Director Arjun Aloysius and two others to six months in prison for defaulting on VAT payments amounting to Rs. 3.5 billion. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) filed the case, revealing that the arrears had accumulated between 2016 and 2019.