Bajwa blames ‘govt-contractor nexus’ for Punjab missing excise revenue targets

Chandigarh, May 12

Claiming that the “government-contractor nexus” is the reason behind the state failing to achieve its excise revenue targets for the last three years, Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday sought a probe into the functioning of the department.

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh holds the excise and taxation portfolio, among others.

“The Excise Dept of Punjab has missed revenue targets for three successive years. The missed targets amounts to thousands of crores in losses to the exchequer. The Excise Dept comes directly under your control @capt_amarinder  Ji,” Bajwa wrote in a series of his tweets.

Bajwa’s claim comes a day after two Punjab cabinet ministers, Manpreet Badal and Charanjit Singh Channi, had said that they would not participate in any meeting attended by the state’s chief secretary, following a showdown between the ministers and state’s top bureaucrat last week.

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Channi was learnt to have opposed any relief for liquor vend owners in the excise policy under discussion.

The Punjab chief secretary had allegedly made some “curt remarks” after Channi spoke. Upset over it, Badal and Channi had walked out of the meeting that was held on Saturday.

In another tweet, Bajwa said: “As Punjab is in a precarious financial position due to the mismanagement of funds by the previous regime, one would have hoped, that excise being a money spinner for the State, would be the #1 priority in achieving revenue targets.”

“Given that the Govt has constantly failed in meeting these targets, the only answer is that there is something wrong within the Dept. I fear a Govt-Contractor nexus has formed and this must be probed immediately,” he added.

Pointing out that either there might be some firms selling liquor “illicitly without paying taxes” or “unlicensed distilleries” are operating in the state, Bajwa demanded in his tweet that an inquiry be initiated into the functioning of the excise department.

Bajwa, a Rajya Sabha MP, also sought investigation into accusations levelled by a Congress MLA against Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh.

“@capt_amarinder ji I also urge an investigation into the allegations raised by a sitting Congress MLA on the conflict of interest against the Chief Secretary. Either he should be cleared of all charges or fired accordingly,” Bajwa tweeted.

Congress legislator Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had on Monday alleged that the chief secretary’s son had an undeclared business interest in a Punjab distillery.

Most of liquor vend owners, who have shut their shops, have been seeking a waiver in license fee and also demanding collection of fee on the basis of actual liquor sales as against the fixed quota system, saying they are badly hit by the lockdown. — PTI

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