Wasana Trading Lanka (Private) Limited vs Sudharma Karunaratne and Others – CA WRIT APPLICATION NO. 689/08-2011

Brief
The case between Wasana Trading Lanka (Private) Limited and Sudharma Karunaratne, Director General of Customs Department, and others addressed whether excise duty orders made under the Excise (Special Provisions) Act could lawfully declare an operative date later than their signing/publication, and whether unpaid excise duty could be retrospectively recovered via the Customs Ordinance or solely under the Excise (Special Provisions) Act. It was held that such excise duty orders become effective on the date of signing/publication, pursuant to the Protection of Government Revenue (Special Provisions) Act, rendering any attempt to make the order prospectively effective inoperative. Further, the Excise (Special Provisions) Act was found to set out an exclusive procedure for the recovery o