(Tribune)
Uttarakhand Excise Minister Prakash Pant today said the monopolistic liquor policy of the previous Congress government under former Chief Minister Harish Rawat had led to increased smuggling of liquor, leading to drastic drop in revenue in the past three years.“The lopsided excise policies led to huge revenue losses. The Department of Excise fell short of achieving revenue targets.
In 2016-2017, it earned revenue of Rs 1,905 crore against the target of Rs 2,100. Similarly, in 2015-2016, it earned revenue of Rs 1,736.50 crore against the target of Rs 2,100 crore,” Pant said while speaking to mediapersons here.Pant’s rebuttal came in the wake of stringent criticism by the Opposition Congress of the new excise policy put in place by the BJP government.The minister said “In the first phase for the financial year 2017-2018, a total of 25,992 applications have been received with application fee of Rs Rs 64.03 crore for 437 liquor vends”.
