According to organizers, in 2007 some of the award were won by scam ads.
The steering committee has established a sub committee this year to pre-screen the ads before they are sent to a panel of international judges.
The penalty for scam ads will be a ban on entering the Chillies 2009. All agencies have to sign an agreement to abide by the new rules.
"We will give lot of publicity for the scam ad and the agency and we will give them a 12 month ban, warned Tharanga Gunasekara, a member of the awards steering committee.
One of the three advertising award ceremonies held in Sri Lanka, Chillies attracts over a thousand advertisements from the advertising industry, but next year there may be fewer entrants.
"There would be 10 percent fewer registrations because there is high cost involved," predicts Gunasekara.
This is due to the low performing economy p