Bhubaneswar: Despite knowing the fact that sale of liquor is not only adversely affecting the health of people but also the socio economic condition of the state, the state government continues to promote liquor sale. The revenue generation could be the reason behind this.
The collection of excise revenue in state has increased three-folds in the past 10 years. According to a statement given by Excise Minister Niranjan Pujari in Assembly Monday, the revenue from excise sources has increased from `848.96 crore in 2009-10 to `3925 crore in 2018-19. It means the excise revenue has grown by 362 per cent in these past years. The state government has collected `21,143.59 crore excise revenue during these years.
Interestingly, the revenue collection has not reduced in any financial year in past 10 years. The revenue collection increased by 28.91 per cent in 2010-11, 26.09 per cent in 2011-12, 8.7 in 2012-13. It further increased by 25.99 per cent in the year 2015-16, 15.6 per cent in 2017-18 and 21.87 per cent in last year.
In terms on money, the excise revenue collection was `1094.38 crore in 2010-11, which goes up to `1499.90 crore in 2012-13, `2038.79 in 2014-15, `2568.68 in 2015-16 and `3221.03 in 2017-18.
Further, the revenue has increased by `704.38 crore in 2018-19, `529.89 crore in 2015-16 and `434.78 crore during 2017-18 in comparison to the previous years.
It seems that the government is on no mood to ban the sale of liquor in the state. BJD MLA Pratap Keshari Deb has asked the minister, “Keeping in view the social and financial burden of women in the family, will the government take any steps to curb the liquor menace in the society by banning wine shops or limit the existing shops? If the answer is yes, lay down the future plan.”
However, instead of saying yes or no about ‘ban of liquor sale’, the minister spoke about the steps taken to strengthen the enforcement activities to stop illicit liquor sale. Pujari said no new liquor shop is being sanctioned in the state.
Replying to another query by Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati, he said 27 ‘On’ shops were sanctioned to 19 districts in 2014-15 while 49 such shops were sanctioned to the same number of districts in 2015-16, 38 in 2016-17, 13 in 2017-18 and 14 in 2018-19.
