Policy flawed: Excise boss

LUCKNOW: After a series of reports published by this newspaper, the state government finally seems to have spotted the 'flaws' in its seven-month-old excise policy. If one goes by the draft of the proposed excise policy, the government has admitted that there indeed were anomalies in the existing policy.
In the proposed excise policy for the fiscal 2008-09, the excise commissioner has admitted that the arrangement under which the trade was handed over to UP Sugar Factories Federation (UPSFF) needs a thorough review at the highest level.
Under this arrangement the UPSFF was given the responsibility of handling liquor trade in the state. As per this responsibility the UPSFF was made the procurer of liquor from all distilleries and breweries and its distribution to the wholesellers. A middleman was thus created by thegovernment as earlier the distilleries and breweries were allowed to supply liquor directly to the wholesellers.
As it subsequently turned out, the decision to appoint the UPSFF as the sole procurer was the government's ploy to eventually pass on the trade's responsibility to its blue-eyed liquor baron Ponty Chaddha's business partners, creating a monopoly in the process.
This is clear from the way the UPSFF entered into an agreement with the Blue Water Industries Limited (BWIL), a company floated by Chaddha's business partners, under which BWIL became the sole procurer and distributor of liquor.
The immediate fallout of this arrangement was a drop in excise revenue in the country liquor segment and disappearance of popular brands of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer from the state's market.
The excise commissioner has conceded that if the existing arrangement continues, there would be a considerable drop in the number of licensees for country liquor in the next fiscal, besides a major loss of revenue.