Chandigarh, April 8
The multi-crore liquor trade in Haryana has gone to a handful of persons this year, with official consent, in an exercise in which established conventions, trade practices and, some say, even high court directions have been violated.

According to sources, the monopoly game in Haryana is being played by four major players. One of them is a controversial UP-based MP, known more for his involvement in criminal activities than his contribution in politics. Another player is also based in UP, whose late father was also a big liquor magnate. A couple of years ago this man had also acquired mining interests in Faridabad district. The other two major players are based in Haryana. While one is a close relative of the ruling family, the second belongs to Sirsa, the native district of the first family of Haryana.

To be fair, the ruling family’s relative is not a new entrant to the liquor business. He has been in the business right from the days when Mr Bhajan Lal was the Chief Minister, with whose family, he had business relations.

Sources say the monopoly has thrown about 1500 liquor contractors of Haryana origin to the wolves. These Haryana-origin contractors include even many die-hard supporters of the INLD.

Interestingly, one of the out-of-job contractors is Mr Babu Ram Dhanauriwala, who is credited with persuading the INLD supremo, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, to contest the Narwana Assembly byelection in 1993. The byelection marked the beginning of Mr Chautala’s political rehabilitation after the infamous Meham mayhem. Mr Chautala never looked back after the Narwana byelection and emerged out of the shadow of his father, Mr Devi Lal, to be a leader in his own right.

Sources say it had been a long-established convention that the vends of one district, or at the most one more district, used to be auctioned at the district headquarters concerned. This year, however, the vends of all districts were auctioned at one place — Ambala. Moreover, various districts were clubbed together at the spot, that too after vends in individual districts were first put to auction.

Small contractors allege that the clubbing of more than one districts eliminated competition and marginalised small bidders. Since 5 per cent of the auction amount has to be deposited at the fall of the hammer, once the authorities clubbed more than one districts, the small bidders had no role to play because they were not carrying sufficient money with them.

The small contractors say that when the vends of Rewari district were put to auction, the bid was raised to Rs 5 crore above the reserve price. At that point, the auction was abruptly suspended by the authorities, who clubbed the district with Mahendragarh and Gurgaon districts, eliminating the small contractors. No wonder the successful bidder was a cartel.

Similarly, the bidding for the vends in Panchkula district started at Rs 17 crore. When the bid reached Rs 17.55 crore, the auction was stopped and the district was clubbed with Ambala. The successful bidder was again the same cartel. Trade sources say the cartel later offered shares up to 33 per cent to the Haryana-origin contractors with certain conditions. There would have been no written agreement. The purchase of liquor would have remained in the hands of the cartel, which would have maintained the accounts. Since small contractors, many of them sharks in their own right, knew the tricks of the trade and how the accounts were manipulated, there were not many takers for the cartel’s offer.

The Haryana Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr Raj Kumar, was not available for comments. His personal staff said he was away to Delhi in connection with the meeting of the state Finance Ministers on VAT.

However, another senior officer of the department, who was involved in the auctioning of vends, justified the clubbing of districts at the spot and the creation of a monopoly in “the interest of the State exchequer”. He said the districts were clubbed after putting individual districts to auction when it was realised that the increase in revenue was not up to the desired level. He said the auction of Rewari vends was stopped because the highest bidder was a defaulter last year. Moreover, Rewari was clubbed with Gurgaon and Mahendragarh after the last two districts failed to attract many takers. The bidders for these districts, he said, feared that the Rewari lessee would undercut their business by illegally selling liquor in their areas of operation. The officer insisted that by clubbing the three districts, the department had earned more revenue than what it would have got by auctioning individual districts. He said the liquor trade in the state had been badly hit by smugglers who had come into operation during the prohibition days. Therefore, last year the liquor traders had suffered losses, making the department apprehend that the excise revenue this year would be less than last years. However, because of the creation of a monopoly the excise revenue registered an increase of 4.84 per cent against 5.3 per cent last year.

Sources in liquor trade say the creation of a monopoly would hit the public hard. Haryana consumes about 12 crore bottles of country liquor every year. Last year, the price of a country liquor bottle was Rs 60. This year it is expected to be in the range of Rs 80 to Rs 85 per bottle. A straight gain of about Rs 300 crore for the lessees. The sources expect an increase of Rs 15 to Rs 20 in the price per bottle of beer. The state consumes about three crores bottles of beer in a year. Similarly, an increase of Rs 30 to Rs 50 per bottle is expected in the prices of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL).

Moreover, the sources say the cartel having a monopoly will sell only those brands of liquor in which it would have the maximum margin of profit.

A former Advocate-General of Haryana, Mr Mohan Jain, who is an expert on excise laws, says the clubbing of districts at the last moment is a clear violation of the directions given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.