Recover penalty, licence fee from liquor contractors in Haryana, orders Collector

Mukesh Tandon

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Panipat, December 22

The Collector, Excise Department, has directed all District Excise and Taxation Commissioners (DETCs) across the state to recover pending licence fee and penalty amount from liquor contractors at the earliest.

Highest fine imposed in 2020-21

The highest penalty imposed on contractors was in the 2020-21 fiscal, which amounted to Rs 202.12 crore; while it was Rs 3.69 crore in 2019-20, Rs 18.44 crore in 2018-19; Rs 25.45 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 12.83 crore in 2016-17.

The directions have been issued after a shortage of liquor stock in the L-13 godowns of two contractors in Sonepat district.

The Excise and Taxation Department detected a shortfall of 7.4 lakh liquor boxes at two L-13 godowns (warehouses for country made liquor) owned by contractors in Murthal and Sonepat city.

Both contractors failed to produce records of where the huge quantity of liquor was sold. The department has found evasion of additional excise duty. After this the Excise Department imposed a penalty of Rs 28 crore on the Murthal contractor and Rs 12 crore on contractor in Sonepat city.

Following these two cases, the collector directed all DETCs to conduct a survey of the liquor stock at L-13 and L-1 across the state.

Besides, the collector in his fresh orders also directed all the DETCs to recover pending licence fee and penalties imposed upon liquor contractors in cases related to the breach of the Excise Act.

The collector also warned the DETCs to ensure recovery of outstanding amounts at the earliest, failing which strict disciplinary action would be initiated against them, the order reads.

As per sources, 150 cases related to flouting of the Excise Act have been reported till December 14 in the current fiscal 2022-23. Of these, 50 cases have been decided and a penalty of Rs 50.21 crore has been imposed upon liquor contractors.

The sources said such cases were not a new thing. As many as 254 cases were reported in the last financial year 2021-22 and a penalty of Rs 89.14 was imposed upon contractors, the sources added.

However, the highest penalty imposed on contractors was in the 2020-21 fiscal which amounted to Rs 202.12 crore; while it was Rs 3.69 crore in 2019-20, Rs 18.44 crore in 2018-19; Rs 25.45 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 12.83 crore in 2016-17, sources added.

As per the sources, the department has collected excise duty of Rs 4,655 crore in the financial year 2016-17; Rs 5,029 crore in 2017-18; Rs 6,062 crore in 2018-19; Rs 6,361 crore in 2019-20; Rs 6,790 crore in 2020-21; Rs 7,936 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 6,742 crore in the current financial year (2022-23) till December 14. The current financial year started from June 11 this year, the sources added.

Ashutosh Rajan, Collector-cum-Joint Director, said, “All DETCs across the state have been directed to speed up recovery of licence fee and penalty from liquor contractors.”