Mohali excise officials allege inaction in UT

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 17 

Officials of the Excise and Taxation Department here are apparently upset over inaction of their UT counterparts against manufacturers and liquor contractors indulging in pilferage of liquor without holograms.

According to Paramjit Singh, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mohali, manufacturing and sale of liquor of several brands without holograms was rampant in the UT. “Distillers in Chandigarh are not only supplying these bottles (without holograms) at local liquor vends but liquor was also being smuggled at large level from Chandigarh to Punjab. These bootleggers have been operating without any fear or control of our counterparts in the UT,” said the official, adding that liquor bottles sans holograms were easily available at many authorised liquor vends in Chandigarh.

Paramjit Singh claimed that the problem was so rampant that in the past one month, thousands of bottles of liquor smuggled from the UT have been confiscated by teams of excise officials in Mohali only. “The number would be a lot bigger if we take total seizures in the state into consideration,” he said. 

The official claimed that they had apprised their UT counterparts of the situation several times but to no avail. “Due to the illegal trade being carried out on at large scale, both Punjab and the UT are suffering heavy revenue losses,” said Paramjit Singh.

A senior official of the UT Excise and Taxation Department said checking of liquor vends and manufacturing units was a routine affair. “We have challaned a number of vends after liquor bottles sans hologram were recovered from there. Action is being taken to check the menace,” claimed the official.

Consignment seized

• A team of excise officials confiscated 284 bottles from the Balongi area on Wednesday.
• Paramjit Singh, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Mohali, said the bottles sans holograms were being smuggled from Chandigarh in a Swift DZire car. “The consignment contained English and country-made liquor. Preliminary investigations revealed that the liquor was lifted from a vend in Sector 21, Chandigarh. As per information on bottles, the liquor was manufactured at two units being run at Industrial Area, Phase 1, Chandigarh,” he said. 
• Two persons, identified as Kashmir Singh and Gurwinder Singh of Fatehgarh Sahib, have been arrested in this connection. A case has been registered at the Balongi police station.