Commissioner State Taxes and Excise Yunus informed here today the team led by U.S. Rana, Joint Commissioner, State Taxes and Excise seized 2683 boxes of pure orange liquor from nine retail outlets of the area in Palampur for which the licensee could not produce any evidence/bill. Apart from this, a difference of 200 boxes was found in the wholesale godown of country liquor, he said.
He said that four cases of illicit liquor have been caught by a team of the department during raids in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) area. During this, 22 bottles of country liquor have been caught in two cases. In another case, nine bottles of english liquor, one bottle and six pints of country liquor were caught in Pirsthan (Nalagarh) during raids.
In all these three cases, the team imposed and recovered Rs. 55,000 as fine from the culprits under section 67 of the Himachal Pradesh Excise Act, 2011. One box of English liquor and six boxes of country-made liquor (For sale in Chandigarh) have been recovered from an illegal storage premises of liquor near Ramlila Maidan in Nalagarh by the department and the police teams. An FIR has been lodged with the police in this matter, Yunus said.
He further said team of Kangra inspected liquor retail shops of Bairaghatta, Theel, Jambal, Nangal Chowk, Tyamal, Bhawarna, Sulah, Thural, Nagani and Alampur in Palampur area on 25th January, 2022 and inspected the stock of 2911 bottles of pure orange country liquor, 38 boxes of pint and 27 boxes of nits.
Yunus said on 28th January the Kangra team inspected the wholesale warehouse of country liquor in Kangra and during the inspection, stock of 257 bottles of pure orange was found there and team took its custody till these are verified as per bills and passes.
All these cases would be thoroughly investigated and if irregularities were found, action will be taken against the guilty under the provisions of the HP Excise Act, 2011.
He warned that the campaign would be continued by the department and strict action would be taken against those who evade excise duty.
