Chandigarh (Haryana) [India], Feb 25 P: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, who also holds the portfolio of Excise and Taxation Department, on Tuesday said that to make the rules more strict, an important decision has been taken in the Excise Policy for the year 2020-21.
As per the new rules, the people involved in liquor smuggling will not get bail before six months, while earlier the time period for the same was only 15 days. Apart from this, distilleries operating across the State will also be closely monitored through flow meters.
The Deputy Chief Minister shared this information while speaking during the ongoing Budget Session in Haryana Vidhan Sabha, here today.
Responding to the question raised by Congress MLA Kiran Choudhary regarding the Excise Policy 2020-21, the Deputy Chief Minister informed the House that she is not aware of the Excise Policy implemented in the year 2007-08 during the tenure of her government, which had a provision to keep liquor at home.
He further informed that with the aim of ending the Inspectory Raj, for the first time, online permits have been provided for serving alcohol during social celebrations.
He said that every bottle will have a QR code and through it, close monitoring will be done from distilleries to warehouses. He further said that CCTV cameras have also been made mandatory in liquor vends.
He said that a provision for imposing fines on distilleries involved in the supply of illegal liquor has also been incorporated in the Excise Policy, under this a fine of Rs one lakh will be imposed on the distilleries caught for the first time, while for the second instance the fine amount would increase to Rs 2.5 lakh and for the third time the fine amount would increase to Rs 5 lakh. However, on fourth time the license of such distilleries would cancel.
He said that the time of trucks involved in the liquor transportation has been fixed from 9 am to 5 pm and the movement of these trucks would be tracked from the distilleries to the warehouse or to their final destination.
( With inputs from ANI )