Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Sunday said that any Gram Sabha of the state that does not want liquor vends to open in its village, can pass the proposal and send it to the State Government through its Deputy Commissioner by March 15.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the financial year started from May 19, 2020 instead of April 1. This time, it will start from May 20, 2021. At present, all the gram panchayats of the state have been dissolved, so those who don’t want liquor vends to open in their villages can pass their proposal in the gram sabha by March 15 and send it to the government through the Deputy Commissioner,” he said while talking to the mediapersons here.
While sharing the details of the last two years, Dushyant Chautala, who also holds the portfolio of Excise and Taxation Department, said that 3048 proposals were sent to the government by the panchayats for the closure of liquor vends in 2019-20, out of which only 57 proposals were accepted and 48 proposals were rejected, while the remainder were left out due to some objections.
He said that during the year 2020-21, 898 proposals were received through Deputy Commissioners, out of which 430 villages were such where there was a complete ban on opening of liquor vends. Besides, there were 468 cases in which multiple FIRs had been filed relating to sale of illicit liquor, due to which there was a ban on the sale of liquor there, he added.
Dushyant said that during the last year, in the third-quarter, revenue of Rs 1421 crore was collected, whereas in the third-quarter of this year, Rs 1734 crore was collected as revenue. 97 percent of the revenue collected in the last financial year was completed by the third quarter of this financial year, he added.
In the third quarter, additional excise duty to the tune of Rs 330 crore has been collected while Rs 140 crore has been collected as COVID-cess, he added.
He further said that a total of Rs 977.94 crore has been received as additional revenue in the last three quarters, which is an increase of about 19.85 percent over the previous year.
Dushyant said that while the total revenue of Rs 6361 crore was collected last fiscal year, this year revenue of Rs 6214 crore has been collected until March 4, 2021. This excise year will be till May 19, 2021. So, this year’s revenue is likely to be higher than the previous year, he added.
