Chandigarh: Being “ignored” by the officials and subjected to “undue pressure”, the retail and wholesale contractors of the country-made liquor have sought an intervention from the office of the chief minister (CMO).The contractors alleged that they were directly or indirectly forced to lift additional quota of liquor and also highlighted the pilferage of stocks.
The office-bearers of the Allied Liquor Licensees Sewa Samiti – a state-level body of liquor contractors – not only alleged that they were being ignored by the excise department officials, but also accused them of turning a blind eye to the pilferage of liquor stocks from the distilleries and causing loss to the state exchequer. “On one hand, the officers required to keep a check on distilleries are not monitoring or acting tough against those who are releasing unlicensed liquor to retailers and on the other hand, the retailers and wholesalers are forced to lift additional quota besides the basic quota mandated to them,” said Narender Saini, general secretary, Allied Liquor Licensees Sewa Samiti.“Contractors have no issue in lifting the additional quota, but the liquor coming out (of distilleries) without paying the state levies should be completely stopped,” he said.Elaborating on the number of communications made to the officers of the excise and taxation department as well as the district excise and taxation collectors so far, Saini said: “Since Jan 8, we repeatedly approached chief minister Nayab Singh Saini for his intervention as minister in charge, but there has been no success so far. However, we shall keep flagging the issue.”“Some senior officials of the excise department pressured us to lift additional quota while turning a blind eye to illegal withdrawal of country liquor by some distilleries, serious flaws in the departmental portal and breach of promises,” read one of the communications shared by the Samiti with the TOI.The Haryana excise and taxation department has a target of generating over Rs 9,000 crore in revenue from the IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) and country-made liquor.Notably, a few months ago, when auctioning and selling of excise zones became extremely difficult for the department due to law and order situation in many areas of the state, the senior excise officials personally contacted the contractors and requested them to take up the zones.“At the time of allocation of vends, assurance was given that full cooperation and protection of the administration would be provided throughout the excise year. But with great regret we must say that as soon as the excise year began, all those assurances were forgotten and instead, contractors faced unnecessary pressure, mental harassment and threats,” read the communication.Vinay Partap Singh, commissioner, excise and taxation, Haryana, however, out-rightly denied the claims that liquor contractors were forced to lift additional quotas.“There is no provision under the current Excise Policy which mandates a particular quantity of additional excise quota to be lifted by retail vends; hence there is no question of forcing any retail vend on this issue,” said the commissioner.“The department regularly reviews enforcement of various provisions of the Excise Policy, including the pattern of additional quota lifted in districts over the last few years. District excise and taxation collectors have been asked to strictly enforce provisions of the Excise Policy on all licensees, including distilleries, breweries and bottling plants, so that no excise duty is evaded,” he added.MSID:: 127400156 413 |
