Excise department sees record earnings

Despite introducing the fixed quota system for the first time in the excise policy announced this year,and maximum dry days,owing to different elections this year,the UT Excise and Taxation Department is already ahead of what it achieved as revenue from liquor sale,during the last fiscal year.

Despite introducing the fixed quota system for the first time in the excise policy announced this year,and maximum dry days,owing to different elections this year,the UT Excise and Taxation Department is already ahead of what it achieved as revenue from liquor sale,during the last fiscal year.

According to officials of the Excise Department,during 2010-11 fiscal year,the department earned Rs 142 crore from liquor sales. During the current financial year,2011-12,by the end of December,the department has already earned Rs 185 crore. With two more months left in this financial year,the department is pegging its total earnings between Rs 210 crore to Rs 225 crore.

Over 142 liquor shops in the city had to be shut four times on account of dry days. These include SGPC elections,MC elections,Zila Parishad elections and now they will be closed on account of January 26 and also for the upcoming Punjab elections.

Interestingly,the department officials said that this whopping target has been achieved despite the fact that this year,the UT Administration has closed down ten vends which were located in periphery areas and the same were not auctioned as there were issues regarding the land on which these were located.

So the overall quota of the city was reduced by 10 per cent owing to the closing down of these vends,still the revenue earned is considerably high,said a senior official of the department. The total quota of the city for 142 vends and shops is 2.5 lakh cases

per month.

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