Ranchi, April 5: A new excise policy is finally in place in Jharkhand to curb the stranglehold of a mushrooming retailer-distiller syndicate and to stop continuing revenue losses pegged at over Rs 175 crore in the last two financial years.
According to excise department sources, a draft of the new policy — substantially different from the earlier one in three broad spheres — is now awaiting the approval of the state Cabinet.
Vyas Sharma, an excise commissioner, said all liquor categories — country, spice and IMFL — would now come under a single head for auction. Secondly, sale of cheap country liquor sachets would be resumed, and thirdly, a bidder would have to accept licences for all categories in a particular area.
Other measures to increase revenue include a hike in import duty in fore- ign liquor, a hike in the licence fee for wholesalers and distributors.
The new policy hopes to tackle the nexus of distiller-retailer syndicates that worked in tandem to fudge sales figures leading to a huge loss to the state exchequer.
Also, despite having licences to trade in Indian, spice and foreign liquor (IMFL) categories, of late, the syndicate would do business in the foreign category as it was a more profitable.
What added to the department’s problems was the syndicates’ own brand of foreign liquor, Ranchi Number 1, sold between Rs 15 to Rs 20 per 180 ml bottle.
Revenue department sources claimed the state government lost around Rs 75 crore in 2006-07 due to the syndicate stopping trade in country and spice liquor categories.
“Shops operating under a syndicate surrendered licences before the one-year tenure without paying a penalty,” said a senior department official.
“This happened in about 18 districts, leading to a loss of about Rs 75 crore in 2006-07, which continued in 2007-08 too.”
The draft policy is ready now, but it took the department close to a year to come out with it. By which time, the exchequer is estimated to have lost over Rs 100 crore in 2007-08 — Rs 122 crore was collected against a target of Rs 225 crore excise revenue.
