Excise Dept not doing enough as liquor smuggling continues

Sushil Manav

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 5

Even as smuggling of liquor from Haryana goes unabated, the Excise and Taxation Department seems to be doing little to plug trafficking, which is causing huge loss of revenue to the state.

Instead, the department seems to be passing the buck, with the police claiming to have unearthed most of the cases which have come to the fore in the recent past.

No notice received

Had there been any irregularity, we would have received a notice. We have not received any notice from the Excise and Taxation Department so far. It has shut one bottling hall unofficially without assigning any reason. — Shiv Kumar Sinha, executive vice-prez (sales & marketing), NV Distillery

The unearthing of the liquor scam in Haryana started with the recovery of huge stocks in Sonepat and Panipat during the lockdown. It became murkier with raids at two godowns in Ambala and the arrest of two persons in Greater Noida, who were carrying IMFL from Ambala to West Bengal. Interestingly, liquor made per bottled by NV Distillery, having units in Ambala, Rajpura and some other places, was involved in all these cases.

Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, in charge of Excise and Taxation, said merely smuggling of liquor did not mean loss of revenue to the state as one had to check whether excise duty had been paid on the liquor being smuggled.

He further said a police Gypsy was stationed outside every distillery and the police must know how liquor, if any, was being dispatched without payment of excise duty.

When reminded that an official of the Excise and Taxation Department was also stationed, the Deputy CM said they were low-rung officials.

Asked whether any action was taken against NV Distillery since its name appeared in almost every case of smuggling and at least 10 FIRs, mentioned in the report of the SET headed by IAS officer TC Gupta, Dushyant said the FIRs were about the Rajpura distillery and NV Distillery had multiple branches.

“We carry out inspection of distilleries periodically,” he added. Asked whether any inspection was carried out at NV Distillery in Ambala in the recent past and the outcome thereof, he said “irregularities” were found during a recent inspection and senior officers of the department were looking into these.

Home Minister Anil Vij said the police were doing their duty of catching smugglers and would continue to do so. He asserted that checking dispatch of liquor from the distillery without payment of excise duty was the duty of the Excise and Taxation Department.

“The police are not even allowed to enter distilleries,” he said, rubbishing the suggestion that a police Gypsy was stationed outside every distillery. “The police unearthed smuggling of liquor at Kharkhoda in Sonepat and Samalkha in Panipat. They have now recovered a huge cache of illicit liquor in Ambala and 17 persons have been arrested so far,” he said.

The Panipat police had arrested former MLA and JJP leader Satinder Rana in connection with the Samalkha case. Bhupinder Dahiya, a liquor kingpin, was among those arrested in connection with the Kharkhoda case.

Shiv Kumar Sinha, executive vice-president (sales and marketing), NV Distillery, claimed that not a single irregularity has been found in their unit during any inspection. “Had there been any irregularity, we would have received a notice. We’ve not received any notice from the Excise and Taxation Department so far. It has shut one bottling hall unofficially without assigning any reason.”

Sinha claimed that since NV Distillery was a reputed firm, with some of its products being exported to the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong, illicit liquor manufacturers tended to use its name on their items. Asked about the appearance of the distillery’s name in 10 FIRs mentioned in the SET report, Sinha said he was not aware of any such FIR. Shekhar Vidyarthi, Exciseand Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, didn’t respond to calls and messages.