Excise Dept ‘laxity’ to blame for unloading of liquor in transit in Haryana

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

Liquor from neighbouring states meant to be delivered to some other states by using Haryana roads for transit is being unloaded in the state with impunity because of laxity by the Excise and Taxation Department, much to the detriment of its revenue.

Despite provisions in the state’s excise policy, the Excise and Taxation Department has not been implementing transit slips for vehicle carrying liquor from other states through Haryana resulting in unloading of consignments for other states in Haryana. The Special Enquiry Team (SET) led by Additional Chief Secretary TC Gupta constituted to probe the ‘liquor scam’ involving theft of liquor from warehouses of the Excise and Taxation Department has highlighted this as well as several other shortcomings in the functioning of the department.

“A provision for carrying transit slips by vehicles carrying liquor for other states through Haryana existed in the state’s excise policies for more than 10 years. The relevant position said that to keep control over vehicles carrying liquor from other states or UTs through the state of Haryana, transit slips have to be carried so that the liquor for other states may not be unloaded in the state. However, no such system has been implemented by the department which has led to non-tracking of such vehicles, which — under the garb of transiting liquor from the neighbouring states — have managed to unload the consignments meant for other states in Haryana,” says the report by the SET.