Ambala, March 8
All 1,600 liquor shops
spread over the entire state were auctioned for Rs 717.75 crore for the next
financial year to two cartels amid a virtual boycott of the auction by local and
small contractors here today.
Among those who boycotted the auction were many
staunch supporters of the ruling Indian National Lok Dal. They were thrown out
of the liquor business last year when the monopoly over the trade in the state
was first created.
The increase over the last year is 3.02 per cent against a
little less than 2 per cent increase recorded in Punjab.
The Joint Excise and
Taxation Commissioner-cum-Collector of the Excise Department, Mr D.P. Sarohi,
clubbed various districts after no bids were received for Sirsa, Kaithal and
Karnal districts. Even the clubbing of four and later of six districts did not
attract any bidder.
The districts were clubbed amid protest by a contractor,
Mr Puran Prakash Saini, who wanted that each district should be first put to
auction. Brushing aside his protest, Mr Sarohi said it was for the authorities
to decide how to conduct the auction.
Once the authorities clubbed eight
districts of Karnal, Kurukshetra, Jagadhari, Panipat, Sonepat, Jhajjar, and the
most sought after Faridabad and Gurgaon, big players moved in for a kill. The
reserve price of the group was fixed at about Rs 360.91 crore. Ashok Wadia and
Company, Vinayak Wines, Sidharth Wines, Jaiswal and Company and Resham Singh and
Company participated in the bid, which closed at Rs 372.50 crore in favour of
Ashok Wadia and Company.
The rest of the 11 districts were clubbed together
for a reserve price of about Rs 336 crore. The bid was bagged by Vinayak Wines
for Rs 345.25 crore.
These two companies had controlled the liquor trade in
the state last year also.
Local contractors claim that the department had
reached an informal understanding with big players before the auction for an
increase of 3 per cent, which comes to about Rs 20 crore, over last year’s
licence fee. They say the authorities put to auction first only those districts
which had been either under the control of one or the other big player for the
past several years or had no local bidders.
Small contractors told TNS that
had the authorities put districts like Ambala, Jagadhri and Panchkula to auction
individually, they were willing to bid and would have given an increase of more
than 5 per cent. But once the districts were clubbed, they were beyond the reach
of the small and local contractors, who had been rendered unemployed for the
past two years.
A few contractors from Himachal Pradesh had also come to bid
for districts bordering their state. However, they did not participate in the
auction after they realised that they were no match for the big players.
Denying the allegations of the small contractors, official sources said over
the years the economics of the trade had become such that only big cartels could
increase the state revenue. The big cartels, they said, could withstand losses
in one or two districts to make it in the other districts. If the department had
put individual districts to auction, they said, “plum” districts would have been
auctioned, leaving the department with unprofitable districts.
The small
contractors also alleged that even if they had been successful in auction for
one or two districts, the department would have made it virtually impossible for
them to conduct their business by imposing heavy penalties on “flimsy grounds”.
A small contractor alleged that he could enter the auction hall only after the
intervention of the SP, Ambala, Mr Akil Mohammad, though he had obtained the
participation slip by paying a refundable security of Rs 2 lakh.
The police
had made heavy security arrangements. All roads leading from the border of the
district to the venue of the auction were being patrolled by police vehicles to
prevent an highway robbery the contractors had to bring huge cash. The road in
front of the auction venue was also sealed. A number of deputy commissioners or
their representatives were also present at the auction.
