Special Chief Secretary to Government (Excise and Commercial Taxes) Rajat Bhargava on Sunday said that all the distilleries that brought new liquor brands to the State had been issued licence before March 2019.
Addressing the media here, Mr. Bhargava said there were 20 Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) manufacturing distilleries in the State. While the oldest of them had been given the licence in 1970, the latest was given the licence on February 25, 2019.
“No IMFL manufacturer has been issued licence after February 2019,” he said. Seven IMFL manufacturers were given the licence between 2014 and 2019, he added.
Mr. Bhargava said all measures were being taken by the government to ensure safe liquor manufacturing in the State, including quality check of raw material and finished products by the excise inspectors and other officials. “The raw materials and finished products are being tested regularly at the five regional chemical labs in the State,” he added.
He said fewer than one lakh samples each had been tested at the five labs located in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, Chittoor and Karnataka between 2014 and 2020. Similarly, 1.55 lakh samples had been tested in 2020-21 and 1.47 lakh samples in 2021-22 (up to February 2022), he said.
Mr. Bhargava said the government, which had committed itself to discouraging alcohol consumption in the State, removed 43,000 belt shops and permit rooms attached to the liquor outlets across the State.
In the one-and-a-half years since the formation of the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) in May 2020, more than 70,000 people had been arrested in 93,722 cases. This apart, 12.47 lakh litres of ID liquor was seized and 3.99 crore litres of jaggery wash was destroyed.
In contrast, during the five years between 2014 and 2019, 66,139 persons had been arrested in 1.42 lakh cases. During the period, 19.02 lakh litres of ID liquor had been seized and 6.9 crore litres of jaggery wash destroyed.
