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Special liquor permits help Excise Department to net more

PUDUCHERRY: The Excise Department has been making significant profits by issuing special permission to liquor shops for keeping the outlets open for two more hours during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

The department has been collecting Rs.1,000 from wine shop owners to keep their outlets open till 1 a.m. This year, the department has collected Rs.1. 5 lakh by issuing special permission to the shops for the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Twenty outlets have been given permission for Christmas and another 130 for New Year. In 2007, the department gave special permission to 10 liquor shops during Christmas and 120 outlets during New Year, according to senior officials of the Excise Department

Taking into account the increase in revenue through the issue of special licence, the department was planning to increase the fee to make a maximum profit. “We have been collecting the same amount for several years. We are thinking about increasing the fee a substantially,” a senior official said.

The revenue from excise had been showing a steady increase in the past two years. During 2006-07, the department collected Rs. 224 crore against the target of Rs. 200 crore.

Till December 31 this year, the department had collected Rs. 200 crore. In the corresponding period last year, the collection stood at Rs.156 crore, officials said. They were optimistic that in the current financial year too, collection would exceed the target of Rs. 257 crore.

The department recently filed an application before the Puducherry Principle District and Sessions Judge, seeking permission to sell 20,000 litres of rectified spirit seized from bootleggers. After getting the court’s approval, the spirit would be tested for quality by experts of the Puducherry Distilleries Limited and sold to them, officials said.

Preliminary examination by the Excise Department revealed that of the 60,000 litres of rectified spirit seized, 20,000 litres was of good quality. Earlier, the department used to destroy the seized spirit, they said. The department also seized 50,000 bottles of fake Indian Made Foreign Liquor from illegal manufacturing units in the past few months, officials said.

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