VIJAYAWADA: By auctioning off the vehicles confiscated across the State for illegally transporting Non-Duty Paid Liquor, Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) has given the State government a revenue to the tune of Rs 2.72 crore. According to the statistics obtained from SEB commissioner Vineet Brij Lal, a total of 32,515 vehicles were seized so far since the inception of SEB on May 2020 and 1,112 vehicles were sold till now in public auction in all the districts.
Out of 1,112 vehicles auctioned off, 1,007 are two-wheelers, 52 three-wheelers, 26 four-wheelers, 14 heavy vehicles such as tractors and other 13 other vehicles. “Also, we are allowing requests from people to get their vehicles released after paying fines. Those vehicles found transporting NDPL in huge quantities causing loss to State exchequer, and vehicles involved in grave cases will be auctioned, while the remaining are being released by imposing fines based on the report from concerned police station,” Vineet Brij Lal told TNIE.
The aim of SEB is to crackdown on the illicit distilleries, bottling and curb smuggling of alcohol and control illegal sand mining in the State. The wing was notified as a Head of Department (HoD) under the Andhra Pradesh Finance Code and the Andhra Pradesh Treasure Code for financial purposes and the government recently issued an order to restructure the jurisdictions and staff patterns for improving the services.
He explained that the decision to go for public auction of the vehicles was taken after the concerned heads of district unit and commissionerates requested the SEB to take steps to clear the confiscated vehicles from the premises of the police stations.
“One can see hundreds of vehicles compounded in the premises of the police stations. In order to clear them, we are auctioning the vehicles under Section 46 (4) of AP Excise Act, 1969 only after taking the consent of the vehicle owner,” the SEB commissioner said. “We are notifying the auction process through various methods so that public can participate and buy the car in the public auction,” he added.
On the other hand, a few vehicle owners are raising objections against the SEB for taking action—auctioning of the vehicles—along with filing cases against them. “It would be appreciated if the SEB and government consider this as a first warning and release our vehicles by imposing fines.” D Srikanth, a city resident, opined.