EC tabs on liquor sales in election season

KOLKATA: If your idea of a "spirited" discussion is to share a bottle of your favourite tipple with your friends, the Election Commission just might play party-pooper in the season of elections. The poll panel is going the whole hog to cork the bottles, with which political parties have been known to woo voters. City retailers and distributors fear that the stringent measures might affect the supply of your favourite liquor brand.
The state excise department has suddenly got cracking after the EC took serious view of illicit liquor flow into Bengal that led to an annual revenue loss of about Rs 600 crore.The EC has also pointed out that the sale of illicit liquor was rampant in South and North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Burdwan and Nadia and the state has done precious little over the last two years to check leakage.
Ahead of deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi's visit, excise minister Asim Dasgupta is trying desperately to put in place a special mechanism to detect lifting of abnormal quantities of liquor. The EC has asked Writers' Buildings to furnish daily reports on the details of production of liquor in distilleries, its sale and supply to liquor shops across the state. Police stations have been asked to raid illicit liquor dens. These reports of seizure of illicit liquor and arrests will also be submitted to the EC.
An order was passed on February 24 and nodal officers were appointed at state and district levels. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers will have to file daily stocks opening and closing to these nodal officers. Liquor sellers are miffed over these measures. All this time, maintaining registers of liquor sales used to be a monthly job for the stakeholders in the liquor industry. Bogged down by the daily rigorous book-keeping work, distributors have already started skipping several retail outlets. "The tendency will increase gradually and there will be a time when the consumer may not get his favourite liquor brand in the vicinity," said Amlan Raha, manager of a liquor distribution company.
A senior official in the excise department said, "The EC is determined to check the flow of illicit liquor in Bengal, which is still behind states like Andhra Pradesh, considered next only to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the use of money and liquor by various parties for influencing voters."
The order passed by the excise commissioner reads: "In order to curb the menace of liquor, the Election Commission of India has directed that the production, off-take, stock limits of licenced stockists, daily receipt and off-take of retail sellers of India-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and opening and closing time of liquor vending shops shall be closely monitored with reference to the production figures in previous years. ... daily reports shall be prepared separately for IMFL, beer and country liquor."
Raha, the manager of a distribution house, and in charge of North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia, said: "We have already been skipping several retail outlets because three or four staff members are engaged every night to update stocks. We have never done it in the last 30 years. If this goes on, several outlets may run out of stock."
Special vigil is being kept along bootlegging corridors along Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda as well as the borders with Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa to prevent liquor flow into the state.
The strict observation of liquor movement has come too late in the day, said Parag Mitra, vice-president, West Bengal Foreign Liquor Manufacturers, Wholesalers' and Bonders' Association. "The state government has made no effort so far in stopping import of illicit liquor from other states," he said.