Mar 13, Colombo: Excise Department of Sri Lanka today seized two container loads of ethanol containing around 62,000 liters.

Sources at the Excise Department say that a politician is involved in a racket of importing ethanol to the island illegally.

The stock is believed to be worth of Rs. twenty million and could be used for producing 200,000 bottles of alcohol.

Sri Lanka's Import and Export Control Department banned import of ethyl alcohol with effective from the beginning of this month.

Accordingly, imports of unmixed ethyl spirits of strength over 80% and mixed alcohols of all strengths have been banned under Import and Export Control Act and the Excise Ordinance.

The government has taken this decision since the country has an excess production of ethanol and also due to the decline of demand for locally produced ethanol.

Sri Lanka imported two million liters of ethanol last year and the ban is expected to save a large amount of foreign exchange.