BENGALURU: Would it surprise you if someone told you that working from home could actually be hurting the State Government’s revenues? Well, at least the Excise Department officials think so.
The loss in excise revenue in the current fiscal could be because of the work from home (WFH) culture, as people are not venturing out much to pubs and bars, according to some senior state Excise officers during a review meeting of the department by Excise Minister H Nagesh on Saturday.
They even went to the extent of urging the minister to prevail upon the Chief Minister and end the WFH culture in the state. Excise revenues have been severely hit because of the pandemic-induced lockdown between March 23 and May 5, 2020 and the steep rise in excise duty on all slabs of Indian Made Liquor (IML) a day after the CL2 (retail liquor stores) were opened in May last year.
Only in the third quarter of 2020-21 the department’s revenue collection at Rs 16,405 crore had surpassed the collection of Rs 16,218 crore during the corresponding period in 2019-20.
Revenue up in Kolar, Tumakuru
This could be because of the excise duty, which was increased to mop an additional Rs 2,500 crore. Kolar, Tumakuru and Ramanagara districts witnessed increased excise revenue collections in comparison to the other districts.
In the review meeting, some of the suggestions made to increase revenue included levying fines on defaulters, strict checks on the sale of non-duty paid liquor, optimum use of secret service funds and to selectively provide CL7 licence (lodges/hotels) only to those premises which follow “all the proper guidelines including that of building facilities and cleanliness,” the officers suggested.
A senior officer, however, stressed that fines in village limits should be reduced. Other suggestions included the setting up of a proper mechanism to improve redressal of grievances and complaints, strict checks and punitive action against the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs and the construction of Excise Bhavan at Rs 150 crore. The government has re-designated excise guards and head guards as excise constables and head constables. They will be given two-wheelers and petro cards.
MORALE BOOSTER
To boost the morale and confidence of the Excise guards and head guards, the government has re-designated them as excise constables and head constables.