Vigil stepped up at Kolkata airport to enforce two-litre-liquor-per-passenger rule

Domestic fliers carrying liquor bottles while going to other cities or coming to Kolkata will have to be careful about the volume of booze because the state excise department has stepped up vigil to enforce the 2-litre-per-passenger rule.

The excise department vigil at Kolkata airport’s domestic section has been there for years, as has been the rule that each flier can carry up to two litres of liquor. But recently the department has increased the number of its personnel at the airport and stepped up vigil significantly, said a senior official of the department.

The bar applies to all kinds of liquor — India made foreign liquor, overseas liquor bottled in India, overseas liquor bottled at origin, wine and beer.

“It is important for domestic air passengers to take cognisance of the excise rules on how much liquor can be carried to the destination. Most of the liquor brands, including overseas ones, are now available in Bengal. If a person wants to buy more liquor, he can do so from any licensed outlets in the city. Carrying more than two litres on flight will invite action,” an excise official said on Thursday.

Officials clarified certain points related to the subject:

⚫ Any additional liquor found in a flier’s possession may be seized.

⚫ The 2-litre rule holds irrespective of whether a bottle has been opened or not.

⚫ The limit is not on a ticket (each ticket may have the names of multiple passengers) but on each passenger.

⚫ Checks at domestic terminals are based on prior information available with excise officials or are conducted randomly, like customs checks in the international terminal.

Excise officials said 10 litres of liquor a passenger was carrying was recently seized. They did not divulge any more details.

An airport official said the excise department had been running an office in the terminal building for years.

“The department had its presence in the old domestic terminal building, too. At times they would randomly check passengers’ luggage,” said the official.

Random checks in the domestic section of the airport have been stepped up to implement the two-litre-per-passenger rule, the official said.

Officials said that before the Bengal government changed the excise duty structure a couple of years back, liquor prices in the state, especially of the bottled-at-origin variety and premium liquor, were higher compared with other states.

The price gap prompted many fliers to bring liquor in excess of the stipulated volume from Delhi and other states, resulting in loss of revenue for the West Bengal government.

The liquor prices in West Bengal have since come down with the government adopting an excise duty structure based on ex-distillery price. The current prices in West Bengal are on par with those in most of the states, including Delhi.

Passengers’ luggage is scanned at various points in the airport as part of the drive to enforce the rule.

“For departure passengers, the luggage is scanned by the inline baggage scanning system. Our personnel as well as security personnel monitor the screens. In the arrival section, excise personnel profile passengers and physically check baggage of some of the fliers,” said an excise department official.