Canned: Imported beer that came ‘duty-free’

GREATER NOIDA: In possibly the biggest imported beer haul in the city till date, the Gautam Budh Nagar excise department seized 33,000 cans of the alcoholic beverage from a godown in Kasna on Tuesday. Since the majority of the impounded beers were imported from Europe, the worth of the haul has been pegged at over a crore.
The UP government charges excise duty to the effect of 55% to 65% on imported beer, depending on the size of the can or bottle as well as the licence category, but it was not paid on the haul.Recommendation to cancel the licence of the retailer, Uma Devi, running the premises has been made, and an FIR for cheating and forgery and under the excise act was registered at Kasna police station against her and the beer smugglers.
Initial probe by the department points towards involvement of some liquor businessmen from Faridabad.
“A team has been deputed to trace the Haryana link behind the smuggling racket. Earlier too, liquor smugglers have been arrested in the city. But this is for the first time that such a massive recovery has been made, some 1,375 crates (comprising 33,000 cans) were seized. Almost 70% of these crates have been imported from European countries. The remaining are from South Korea,” said district excise officer RB Singh.
According to Singh, some of the brands — Martens, Desert Stallion, Kloud, Cass and Ponaa — seized at the godown are not registered with the UP excise department and retailing of the same is also not allowed. The price of 500-ml can of these brands range between Rs 230 and Rs 320.
Since the price of these cans used to be cheaper in the neighbouring states, importers in the liquor trade did not renew these brands with the UP excise department this fiscal. President of Liquor Traders’ Association in UP, SP Singh, said that a lot of beer companies and importers decided to pull out this year due to high duties compared to other states.