VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 26: The Jharkhand government has developed cold feet over the proposed new excise policy of Jharkhand as the state Revenue Board is learnt to have raised objections.
The Revenue Board is not convinced that a new policy of liquor trade by any private agency under government control would bring revenue surplus.
The new policy was expected to be discussed before the last cabinet held on Thursday since the minister of the department Jagarnath Mahto had given his consent to the new policy. Given the seriousness of the government, it was believed that the new policy will be operational from April 1.
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. The secretary of the Excise Department Vinay Kumar Choubey did not respond to the phone calls and a message to know why the government deferred the policy.
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.
Another senior official of the department said that the Revenue Board had sought an explanation on several points of the proposed policy and also advised many things. The explanations and suggestions of the Revenue Board were incorporated in the draft policy. But the Revenue Board did not give its consent. This matter is still under process hence I can’t comment on this matter,” the official said.
In 2017, the then Raghubar Das government had changed the policy to take over liquor trade and entrusted the state-run Jharkhand State Beverages Corporation Limited (JSBCL) for the same. It set an ambitious revenue target of Rs 1,500 crore. But the earnings from liquor declined from Rs 957 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 846 crore in 2017-18. Barely 20 months later, Raghubar Das decided to return to the old policy, and the trade was left to the private players.
Not only the Revenue Board, the Congress which is an alliance partner in the government was suspicious about the new policy. A section of the party believed that the government should stay away from the liquor business. Notably, barely a few months back the department granted licenses to private players across districts to sell and distribute liquor. The Congress feels that in case the new policy is implemented affected parties will challenge it before the court.