SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Aug. 25: State Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon is likely to be in trouble after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his premises in order to investigate the role of his son Rohit Oraon in the liquor scam and recovered Rs 30 lakh.
A couple of days back, the federal investigation agency, in order to probe the liquor scam, had raided over 30 locations, including those of liquor baron Jogendra Tiwari, in Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Rameshwar Oraon, an IPS officer-turned politician, is a minister from the Congress quota in the Hemant Soren cabinet. Ironically, Oraon, a former Jharkhand Congress president, is said to be feeling sidelined in the State unit of the party these days.
ED sources said that the raids have now been concluded. “The agency is examining the role of every person who has been raided, and will take action accordingly. To begin with, liquor baron Jogendra Tiwari, who is said to be one of the kingpins in the scam, has been summoned for questioning tomorrow,” sources said. Tiwari alongwith Prem Prakash is said to be the main architect of the new liquor policy in Jharkhand.
Sources said that Rohit Oraon had invested a huge amount in the liquor business through Tiwari.
The ED suspects that the liquor policy had been changed twice in Jharkhand since 2019 to benefit a certain liquor lobby. It was said that Rameshwar Oraon gave his concurrence to the new policy despite the objections raised by the Board of Revenue. “It was definitely a conflict of interest if not a case of quid pro quo,” said an official.
According to sources, after the finance department had some reservations with regards to the new draft policy, the liquor lobby got in touch with Rohit Oraon through a ruling party MLA from the coal belt and later persuaded him to get involved in the liquor business.
Notably, the excise policy had been tweaked twice since 2019. First, it had been related to the wholesale business. Objections were raised to it too but they were overruled through the cabinet. However, the second change was objected strongly by the Board of Revenue.
The explanations and suggestions of the Board of Revenue were later incorporated in the draft new policy. But the Board did not give its consent. Still, the finance department concurred with the Excise department’s proposal, which was later approved by the cabinet.
The Board of Revenue was not convinced that the new policy of liquor trade by any private agency under government control would bring revenue surplus.
The new policy had proposed a private agency to open liquor shops along with godown facilities in all the five divisions. The agency was supposed to order and sell the liquor. All its activities will be under the control of the government.
The government adopted the excise policy of neighbouring Chhattisgarh and even appointed Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) as the consultant. It suggested that by adopting the Chhattisgarh model the government without increasing the price of liquor can get a revenue of Rs 2500 crores instead of Rs 1900 crores.
But the government failed to convince the Revenue Board that the new policy will increase revenue.
Well-informed sources in the department confided that the department failed to convince the Revenue Board on several points. “Similar experiments and policy changes were made in the past. But it had resulted in a huge loss of revenue and several anomalies were reported. The Revenue Board was not convinced that this policy will bring a surplus of revenue,” said an official.
