Ranchi: The Hemant Soren government is preparing to take over the sale of liquor in Jharkhand on lines of the Chhattisgarh model but the move has run into opposition from retail liquor traders citing how similar attempts by the previous BJP government led to heavy losses to the state exchequer.
Recently, a team from the state excise department returned from Chattisgarh after a field study of the liquor policy there and submitted its report to the state government.
While the government is still to officially announce its future course of action, sources in the excise department said the new policy will soon be announced and tabled before the cabinet.
Excise minister
Jagarnath Mahto’s phone remained switched off while the state excise department secretary
Vinay Kumar Choubey didn’t receive calls but a departmental source said the move is to increase revenue. “The idea behind the government’s move to regulate the liquor trade by taking it over is to ensure fair play and plug leakages in revenue,” said an official.
Liquor traders, however, maintained that the government must take lessons from its earlier experience when it ran into heavy losses after taking over the trade. In 2017, the previous Raghuabar Das government took over the liquor trade and ran it through the state beverage corporation limited, but results were disappointing. Besides fiscal losses, it also had to face the opposition’s wrath, including that of the ruling JMM, currently helmed by Hemant Soren. As a result, the government withdrew it in 2019.
“The reveneu in 2020-2 was slightly less but was good despite Covid-19 induced lockdown for months,” said
Subodh Jaiswal, secretary of
Jharkhand Khudra Sharab Vikreta, an outfit of liquor retailers.
He added that rather than blindly following another state’s model and incur losses, the government must plug in its own apparatus to prevent leakages.