RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 18: BJP legislature party chief Babulal Marandi has written a letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren accusing senior officials of the Jharkhand Excise Department of violating Jharkhand Excise Rules 2022 and the loss of revenue.
He said that a new excise policy 2022 has been brought by the excise department which provides for the sale of retail and wholesale liquor by the JSBCL from May 1, 2022. Both will be operated by private units. Accordingly, the department has floated a tender for the appointment of placement agency, warehouse, and other resources.
He, in his letter, has mentioned that department officers are conspiring to open a limited number of shops in order to get the tender to the favourite manpower company of Chhattisgarh.
“Under the new excise policy, to achieve the revenue target of Rs 2300 crores in the financial year 2022-23, along with the opening of 1564 shops, a total of 5 wholesale centers in the entire state have been approved by the cabinet in the new excise policy 2022. The opening of the proposed 1564 shops is paramount for the above revenue receipt, otherwise the huge loss of revenue cannot be ruled out. After the objection of the Board of Revenue, it is clear in the new excise policy 2022 approved by the Council of Ministers that if there is any loss of revenue of Rs 2300 crore under any circumstances, then its recovery will be recovered from the security deposit of the placement agency serving in the said division,” Marandi writes.
Marandi explains his suspicion by presenting an example.
“If 1564 shops are opened to get the revenue of Rs 2300 crore, then the revenue per shop will be around Rs 147 crore. If the department opens only 1000 shops, then only the burden of getting annual revenue of Rs 1470 crore will be on the placement agency, which they will easily achieve and get rid of because the manpower company is not responsible for opening the shop. I Would like to inform you that in the financial year 2021-22, there were a total of 1675 approved shops, in which, despite the settlement of 1450 shops and the corona epidemic, 1915 crores of excise revenue was received. Implementing the earlier policy, Jharkhand Retail Liquor Vendor Association has brought a new policy keeping the revenue in tatters under a conspiracy to assure to collect revenue of Rs 2,300 crore. In this regard, a memorandum given to me by the retail liquor seller association in Jharkhand is attached with this letter for your perusal,” Marandi further writes.
