Illegal sale of liquor triggered face-off within Punjab Govt

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 13

At the heart of the recent face-off between Congress ministers and Punjab Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh was the alleged involvement of party leaders in the illegal production and sale of liquor. Official figures put the excise revenue loss during the three years of the Congress rule at an estimated Rs 1,800 crore.

Sources said the trouble began when the ministers accused the top officer of not accounting for the mounting losses. He, in turn, is learnt to have replied that the main reasons for the low revenue receipts were liquor smuggling and unaccounted-for sale across the state allegedly involving Congress leaders.

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The Chief Secretary has since relinquished the additional charge of Financial Commissioner, Excise and Taxation.

Certain ministers and MLAs are said to be into the liquor business, directly or indirectly. “These leaders are into the business in their own names or in the names of their family members. The big issue here is unaccounted-for liquor stock. There are no records,” a senior official of the state Excise and Taxation Department said.

There are three aspects to the revenue loss: businessmen owning distilleries and retail outlets moving stocks illegally and selling without record of sales; retailers buying stocks from distilleries without bills and selling these illegally; and third, organised smuggling of alcohol in districts and sale by bootleggers.

The officer added that besides involvement of leaders and questionable liquor supply, “we have also been facing competition as a result of smuggling of liquor from Chandigarh and Haryana”.

Congress minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, when contacted, said, “Our sole objection during the meeting with the Chief Secretary was the falling revenue figures from liquor sales. We asked about liquor being sold during the lockdown. We also raised the issue of ‘conflict of interest’ because the Chief Secretary’s son is involved in the liquor trade.”

Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh could not be contacted despite several attempts.