VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, March 30: The Jharkhand cabinet is expected to discuss the new Excise Policy at its meeting today. Earlier, in February, the government had planned to discuss and pass it in the cabinet. But the government postponed it following objections raised by the Jharkhand State Revenue Board.
“We have been given to understand that the new excise policy will be taken up by the cabinet. Objections raised by the revenue board have been addressed and the same has been rectified,” said a senior official of the excise department.
It is learnt that the government has withdrawn the provision of auction of liquor shop and the government will directly manage the trade. But the government will hire manpower from Chhattisgarh.
Earlier, the Revenue Board was not convinced that a new policy of liquor trade by any private agency under government control would bring revenue surplus.
The government 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.
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 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 Revenue Board was not convinced that a new policy will increase revenue. But it is not clear that how far the government could satisfy the Revenue Board on this point.
Similar experiments and policy changes were made by the Raghubar Das-led government, but the government incurred a huge loss.
