Chandigarh, March 27
The gamble of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Excise and Taxation Minister Venod Sharma has paid off. The state has recorded an18 per cent increase in the licence fee of liquor vends over that of last year. This increase is only from 18 districts. Another district, Karnal, will be reauctioned on March 29 because the increase today was not satisfactory.
This year's record increase in liquor vends' licence fee is more than the combined increase in the licence fee for the past five years. The state exchequer will be richer by at least Rs 120.84 crore this year because of the increase in the licence fee of liquor vends.
As compared to this year's 18 per cent increase, there was a meagre increase of 1.99 per cent and 1.65 per cent in the first two years of the Chautala government, respectively. The excise auctions registered a 5.43 per cent increase in 2002-03, against a fall of 4.87 per cent and 3.02 per cent in the next two years, respectively.
Officers of the Excise Department used to claim during the INLD regime that since the liquor trade had reached its saturation point, not much
increase
in the revenue was possible now. In the past two years, when the powers that be introduced monopoly in the state's liquor trade at the cost of local contractors, the officers justified it by saying that without monopoly the trade was not viable. Informed sources say certain officers again advanced this argument before Mr Hooda this year also.
However, he insisted that unless local contractors, who did not match the money power of the syndicate, were encouraged to participate in the liquor auction, the revenue would not increase appreciably.
The sources say Mr Hooda literally burnt the midnight oil to finalise the state's excise policy for next financial year. The policy was made in Haryana Niwas, where he was temporarily putting up after taking the oath of office as Chief
Minister. When the policy was finalised, the next day was dawning.
While the then Excise and Taxation Commissioner was not involved in making the policy, Mr Hooda took the help of a former Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr R.N. Prashar, and the Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mr Yudhavir Singh.
It is reliably learnt that the syndicate had made tempting offers to Mr(MOR)
Hooda to continue the monopoly. However, he spurned the offers.
His insistence on auctioning liquor vends in small groups brought rich dividends when several districts reported increase of above 20 per cent. Mahendragarh reported an unprecedented increase of 43.67 per cent.
The increase of 18 per cent is almost twice the increase expected by the government. In contrast, Punjab, where monopoly of the trade continues, reported a meagre increase of about 2.6 per cent.
Mr Karan Singh Dalal, MLA from Palwal, said the increase in the excise revenue this year had proved what the Congress had been saying that a large-scale pilferage was taking place from excise revenue with the help of the powers that be.
He said the loss to the state exchequer in the past five years should be recovered from the leaders of
the INLD.
