CAG report on liquor scam claims revenue loss of Rs 2,002 crore
The CAG report on the alleged liquor scam further claimed a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 2002 crore, saying timely permissions were not taken for opening the liquor vends in "non-conforming municipal wards" and including incorrect collection of Security Deposit from zonal licensees.
Non-conforming areas are areas which do not conform to land use norms for opening of liquor vends. "The excise department suffered a loss of approximately Rs 890.15 crore on account of license fee from these zones owing to their surrender and failure of the department in re-tendering," the report, tabled by the Chief Minister, added.
There was loss of revenue of Rs 144 crore for irregular grant of waiver
Besides, there was loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 144 crore due to "irregular grant" of waiver to the licensees because of Covid pandemic related closure, the report said.
The alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the policy had snowballed into a political punching bag used by the BJP after Lt Governor VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe in July 2022.
Top leaders of AAP, including Arvind Kejriwal, Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, have spent months in jail after probe agencies arrested them in the case. The report said the Master Plan Delhi-2021 prohibited opening of liquor vends in non-conforming areas, but the Excise Policy 2021-22 mandated opening at least two retail vends in each ward.
According to the report, the tender document for opening new vends had said no liquor stores would be located in a non-conforming area. In case, a vend was in a non-conforming area, it had to be considered with the prior approval of the government, said the report.
Excise department did not take timely action to work out modalities
"The excise department did not take timely action to work out modalities for proposed vends in non-conforming areas and the initial tender was floated on June 28, 2021 without taking comments from the DDA and MCD,” it said.
Licences were allotted in August 2021 even before this issue was sorted out and the vends were scheduled to start operations from November 17, 2021. Meanwhile, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) issued an order on November 16, 2021, disallowing vends in non-conforming areas, it said.
The licensees then approached the high court. On December 9, 2021 , the court exempted them from paying any licence fee in respect of mandatory vends in 67 non-conforming wards. This resulted in the exemption of licence fee of Rs 114. 50 crore per month.
19 zonal licensees surrendered licences before policy expired in August 2022
"Non-sorting of this issue before notice inviting tender (NIT), resulted in this exemption and a cumulative loss of nearly Rs 941. 53 crore," said the CAG report. The report pointed out that 19 zonal licensees had surrendered their licences before the policy expired in August 2022 -- four in March 2022, five in May 2022 and 10 in July 2022.
However, no re-tendering process was initiated by the excise department to operationalise the retail vends in these zones. Consequently, no excise revenue accrued as licence fee from these zones in the months after surrender. Notably, no other contingent arrangement was put in place to continue liquor retail in these zones.
The licensees sought a waiver from the excise department, citing Covid restriction from December 28, 2021 to January 4, 2022.
The high court in its order on January 6, 2022, asked the department to pass a reasoned order on the matter.
The excise and finance departments after examining the matter proposed that proportionate waiver in license fee due to Covid restrictions may not be considered as there is no provision in the tender document for it, said the report.
"This proposal was turned down by the Minister in charge of the Department and grant of waiver to each Zonal licensee for the closed vends during the period from 28 December 2021 to 27 January 2022 was approved," it said.
The approval was given by the minister (Manish Sisodia) with the reason that the government had given the benefit of pro-rata fee waiver to hotels, clubs and restaurants (HCR) during Covid lockdown, it said.
"This resulted into the loss of approximately pro rata Rs 144 crore to the government," the report claimed. The report further noted a loss of Rs 27 crore owing to "incorrect" collection of security deposits from the licensees.
The report stated that the group of ministers (GoM), headed by then deputy CM and excise minister Manish Sisodia, changed recommendations of the expert committee formed to formulate the policy.
(With inputs from agencies)
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