Min pulls up excise officials of 10 dists for missing revenue targets

Lucknow: Excise minister Nitin Agarwal on Saturday sought an explanation from the officials of 10 key districts for not being able to achieve the target set by the department.Holding a crucial review meeting ahead of the next financial year, Agarwal went through the performance of all 75 districts and pulled up district excise officers of Kanpur, Agra, Meerut, Bijnor, Lucknow, Bulandshahr, Hathras, Moradabad, Aligarh and Bareilly for low collections. He added that the revenue target of Rs 63,000 crore was set for the department in the financial year 2025-26, of which Rs 50,585 crore has been collected till Feb. This was Rs 7,756.36 crore more than the revenue of Rs 42,828.57 crore collected in the same period last year. The minister said an additional time of one week should be given for the renewal of licences for liquor and bhang shops. Officials were directed to ensure a complete ban on illicit liquor coming into UP from neighbouring states, for which district enforcement teams will carry out continuous monitoring.The minister was informed that the department seized 2,76,438 lt of illicit liquor in Feb, and initiated action against the persons involved in unauthorised activities.In another development, warning was issued to district excise officer of Bijnor and inquiry ordered after an industry stakeholder complained to the state govt about his inappropriate behaviour.