KOCHI: The then Congress-led United Democratic Freont Government had formulated the project — Punarjani 2030 — for rehabilitating the retrenched bar employees and imposed a five per cent cess on liquor sold through Bevco in 2014.
A sum of Rs 1,027.13 crore (Rs 124.80 crore in 2014-15, Rs 293.75 crore in 2015-16, Rs 308.73 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 299.85 crore in 2017-18) was collected during the past four financial years.After the government renewed the liquor policy, the collection of cess ceased.
“The Beverages Corporation was only entrusted with the task of collecting the cess and the government has to decide on the fund’s disbursement,” said Bevco managing director H Venkatesh.