The Haryana government is considering changes in the law to ensure those accused of liquor smuggling do not get bail for six months, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala told the state Assembly on Tuesday.
"If anyone is caught in liquor smuggling, as per present provisions in the law, the offence is bailable and one gets bail within 15 days. However, we will soon make changes in the existing law making the offence non-bailable for six months," Chautala, who holds the Excise department portfolio, told the House.
Chautala was responding to criticism from the opposition Congress, which has slammed the BJP-JJP government over the new excise policy. The opposition has claimed various provisions of the new policy, which comes into effect from April 1, will encourage liquor addiction among youths.
Among other things, the policy provides that bars in Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panchkula will soon remain open till 1 am as against existing rules that doesn't allow them to run after midnight. The bars in these cities will be able to extend their closing time by another two hours after 1 am by paying an additional annual licence fee of Rs 10 lakh per hour.
The excise duty on beer across categories has been slashed by Rs 10 per bulk litre (BL) under the policy.
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During the Zero hour, Congress Rohtak MLA B B Batra pointed out one of the provisions of the new policy, saying, "You have allowed an individual to get a temporary licence and store six bottles of country liquor, 12 bottles of beer...rum, Indian Made Foreign Liquorin this way one can open a mini liquor vend inside one's house and misuse it".
Chautala told the House that the provision was made by the previous Congress regime in 2005-06.
"This provision was even during previous Congress government... We are giving licence for 24-hour period on the condition that an individual will store liquor in his house for social functions like marriages. However, if anyone is found misusing the licence permit or storing liquor without permit, then we have made provision of imposing heavy fines," he said.
He dismissed criticism that certain provisions in the new policy would encourage liquor addiction.
Chautala said under the policy, if any distillery is found selling liquor illegally, a fine of Rs 1 lakh will be imposed for first offence, Rs 2 lakh for second, Rs 5 lakh for third after which licence will be cancelled for subsequent offence.
Congress leader Kiran Choudhary said "there is no doubt that liquor smuggling in the state is going on in a big way and this needs to be checked".
"Under the policy, we have taken steps by which we can trace every bottle which comes out of distillery until it reaches end consumer. Also, flow meters will be installed in every distillery to monitor every drop which is produced," Chautala told the Congress member.
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, demanded withdrawal of the new policy, terming it as a "recipe for disaster".
"If this policy was so good, then why would Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala also criticise it. He too has demanded rollback of certain provisions of this policy,"Hooda said.
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