Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday said that the Punjab Excise Department has registered a ₹2,587 crore increase in revenue during the financial year 2022-23 against the year 2021-22, an increase of 41.41%.
He said the Excise Department had collected revenue of ₹88,41.4 crore from the sale of liquor during 2022-2023 against revenue of ₹6,254.74 crore in 2021-22.
“…the record growth of 41.41% is due to the new excise policy…During the previous government’s regimes, the excise collections in the State registered very less growth in revenue, and at times the State has witnessed even negative growth in excise collections,” Mr. Cheema said.
Mr. Cheema said the Excise Department has also successfully completed the allotment of retail liquor vends for the year 2023-24. “The process of allotment of 171 excise groups was started on March 11, 2023, which has been successfully completed on March 31 2023,” he said, adding that the department has surpassed the set target of Discovered License Fee of ₹7,989 crore and had actually achieved the Discovered License Fee amount of ₹8,007.45 crores for 2023-24.
He said the Excise Department had set the total revenue collection target of ₹9,754 crore for 2023-24 but he was confident that the department would touch the ₹10,000 crore figure.
He added that the new excise policy strived to keep a stringent check over the smuggling of liquor from neighbouring States through extensive enforcement, and by incorporating new technological measures.
He said that drones were also being used to capture real-time images of inaccessible locations where illicit brewing was being carried out, besides using hand-held monitors for checking the strength of confiscated liquor.
The above news was originally posted on news.google.com
