Rs 7,000 crore per year loss as booze smuggled: Cong

Panaji: Congress on Wednesday claimed that every day, ten trucks with liquor worth Rs 2 crore cross the Patradevi border with illegally manufactured liquor destined for states such as Gujarat. “If you do the math, Rs 7,200 crore worth of alcohol is smuggled out of the state annually , but if you ask the excise officers and police, they claim that nobody came to claim the truck (that caught fire at Dhargalim on Tuesday). It is registered with the transport department, so why can’t they find its owner?” said state Congress president Amit Patkar.

Congress criticised local authorities for turning a blind eye to liquor being smuggled out of Goa.

Patkar said the excise department has no mechanism to track and intercept trucks carrying illegally manufactured and bottled alcohol out of the state.

“It was 36 hours, and yet the police department did not find anyone, the excise department was not taking any action, and the ED was also not doing anything,” said Patkar. “We demand that the CM clarify the state to tell us where this liquor came from and where it went. This is a big national threat. By tomorrow, they have to come out with this, and if they don’t, then we will gherao the commissioner of excise.”