CHANDIGARH: Instead of curbing inflation by reducing taxes on fuels, the Haryana government has made liquor cheaper in the state by cutting down the excise on it and has made clear what is its priority, Senior Congress leader Kumari Selja said on Saturday.
The former Union minister made the remark, hitting out at the state's new excise policy, approved by the Haryana Cabinet on Friday.
"The people of the state are suffering from inflation and they are demanding a reduction in taxes on petrol and diesel and to make other things cheaper, but the government did not pay attention to it," Selja said.
"Instead of taking steps to reduce inflation, the government has shown its priority by making liquor cheaper," She said in a statement here.
She added that the state government has reduced the import duty on wine from Rs 7 to Rs 2 per bottle.
"Now, it will also be easy to set up a wine factory in the state. For this, the license fee, which was earlier Rs 15 lakh, has now been reduced to only Rs one lakh. The VAT on imported foreign liquor was slashed down from 10 per cent to three per cent and reduced from 13-14 per cent to 12 per cent in the case of country liquor, wine, beer and IMFL," she said referring to the provisions of the Excise policy.
Selja also accused the Khattar government of seeking top promote alcoholism and drug abuse among youths.
"This move of the government will encourage alcoholism. The government had earlier reduced the legal drinking age from 25 years to 21 years. It is clear from these steps of the government that it wanted to promote drug abuse in the state," she alleged.
"At the age when youths should get employment opportunities, the BJP-JJP alliance government wanted to hand them a bottle of liquor. Today, the youths of the state need higher education or employment, for which the state government has completely failed to make any arrangement," she claimed.
She also alleged that the BJP had always adopted a dual character.
On the one hand, the state government promotes a campaign to eliminate drugs, on the other hand, the focus of the government is towards promoting liquor use, she alleged.
The former Haryana Congress chief said the prices of petrol and diesel were too high.
"The state government has also increased the cost of electricity. Toll rates had also been increased. On Saturday itself, cooking gas LPG prices were hiked by Rs 50 per cylinder by the Centre. Today, everything has become expensive. Everywhere there is an outcry due to the rapidly rising inflation. But the government is not paying any attention to reducing inflation," she said.
Selja alleged that due to wrong policies of the government, "Haryana ranked first in the country in terms of unemployment and every third graduate of the state was unemployed".