Govt eyes revenue boost through excise collections

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 29

With last year’s GST rollout limiting the scope for imposing fresh taxes or hiking tax rates, the state government is keen on increasing excise collections manifold for additional resource mobilisation (ARM). The government expects to earn Rs 5,422 crore from excise collections during this financial year.

Official sources said the government was looking to end monopolistic trade practices in the liquor business — controlled by politician-distillers — by setting up a state-owned corporation for wholesale distribution. The issue was discussed at a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on ARM with Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh last evening.

During a meeting with officials of the Excise and Taxation Department, the modalities to set up the corporation were discussed. It was observed that no system was in place to form the corporation before the 2018-19 liquor policy is announced in March.

Sources in the government told The Tribune that the delay in establishing the corporation would be on account of the state not having its own warehousing facility for storing liquor; no additional, trained staff for running the trade as the major player; not having bar coding machinery etc.

A senior officer in the government said: “It will take the department some months to establish the system before the government starts wholesale liquor trade. The corporation could become functional by the middle of the next financial year. Till then, the government will look at other ways to break monopolistic practices, wherein end-to-end trade (distillation, wholesale and retail) is controlled by single entities. This year, very few entities entered the business, thus cartelising the trade.”

It is learnt that officials gave a presentation citing the liquor policy of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which were raking in moolah by selling the commodity through state-owned corporations.