Ranchi, May 5 (PTI) The Jharkhand government has received a total of Rs 19.07 crore excise revenue in the last four days post amendments in excise policy related to rules of wholesale and retail sale of liquor, an official said.
The state Cabinet on March 30 had approved four major amendments in the excise policy related to rules of wholesale and retail sale of liquor and other related cases resulting in takeover of the wholesale and retail sale of liquor by the state government in a bid to push revenue collection to Rs 3,000 crore annually from the current Rs 1,800 crore in three years.
“Under the new policy, during the first four days of operation, the state has received Rs 7.05 crore as excise tax and Rs 12.02 crore as excise transport tax, i.e, a total of Rs 19.07 crore has been received as revenue,” an official said.Under the new policy notified by the “Jharkhand Excise (Operation of Retail Product Shops through Jharkhand State Beverages Corporation Limited) Rules, 2022” and “Jharkhand Liquor Storage and Wholesale Sale Rules, 2022”, the supply of liquor has been started from May 1, 2022.The state excise and prohibitions department has earlier roped in an agency to prepare a roadmap to boost the sale of liquor.
State Excise secretary Vinay Kumar Choubey had claimed that the amendments will help check illegal sale of liquor and also the overpricing complaints.“Now, instead of 75 godowns, there will be five godowns in five divisions of the state, which will be under the control of JSBCL (Jharkhand State Beverage Corporation Limited) and operated by a private agency,” Choubey had said.
The number of retail shops will be increased to 1,500 from the current 750, he had said.These shops will be under the control of JSBCL.
In a bid to deal with illegal sales and overpricing, quick response (QR) codes will be used.Consumer can trace price, manufacturing and other important details through QR code in bottles.The government had said that now, the size of foreign-made and country-made liquor bottles will be the same and plastic bottles will not be used. PTI NAM RG
