Punjab’s excise revenue up by 41%

While the Delhi’s excise policy got embroiled in a controversy, Punjab has carried forward its policy this year as well. With the new policy, the government was able to check smuggling of liquor from Chandigarh and neighbouring states.

Consequently, Chandigarh administration was not able to attract bidders for the liquor vends.

Earlier, Chandigarh’s liquor was purchased by the residents of Punjab due to comparable prices and the state government often blamed smuggling of liquor for poor revenue growth in excise.
On the other hand, Punjab has been able to allot all its vends for the new fiscal, partly because the last year’s policy has been renewed.

There was a negative growth rate of -1.2 percent during the last financial year with a collection of Rs 6,254.74 crore as compared to the previous year. The year 2020-21 had an increase of 23.7 per cent over the previous years with a figure of Rs 6,335 crore. But there was negative growth of -0.7 per cent in 2019-20 with a collection of Rs 5,117 crore.

Finance Minister Harpal Cheema Thursday told reporters that the excise department has successfully completed the allotment of retail liquor vends for the year 2023-24. “The process of allotment of 171 excise groups was started on March 11 which has been successfully completed on March 31, 2023,” said the minister while adding that the department has surpassed the set target of discovered licence fee of Rs 7,989 crore and has actually achieved the discovered licence fee amount of Rs 8,007.45 crore for 2023-24 fiscal.

He said that the excise department has set the total revenue collection target of Rs 9,754 crore for the year 2023-24 but he is confident that the department would touch Rs 10,000-crore mark.

He said that the excise department with the use of technology and proper coordination with civil and police authorities is carrying out an enforcement drive effectively. It has registered 6,317 First Information Reports (FIRs) during April 1, 2022, to February 8, 2023, and made 6,114 arrests, and seized 1,48,693 litres of illicit liquor, 5,06,607 litres of lahan, 1,74,468 litres of PML/IMFL/beer/spirit, 71,476 litres of ENA, destroyed 308 working stills (bhattis) and confiscated 592 vehicles involved in liquor smuggling.

The government is making use of drone technology to capture real-time images of in-accessible locations where illicit brewing is being done, besides using hand-held monitors for checking the strength of seized liquor.

Cheema said that a track-and-trace programme has been implemented in order to keep a tab on the movement of liquor from the manufacturer to wholesale and retail outlets. This has enabled the officers of the department to monitor the movement of liquor and stock inventories of the licensees up to the retail level.

“The Excise QR Code Label Verification Citizen App has been launched in Punjab to ensure that no in-genuine/counterfeit/non-duty paid liquor is sold in the state. This app functions in all Android phones as well as iOS-operated mobile phones,” the minister added.

Cheema said that mass flow meters have been installed in order to check the production of liquor in the manufacturing units. A very robust infrastructure and online remote monitoring system have been installed at Excise Bhawan to keep a vigil on production and flow of liquor from distilleries.