Now, a liquor scam reported in West Bengal, BJP accuses past Trinamool govt of 'extortion'

KOLKATA, (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell Chief and party's central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya on Sunday criticised the previous Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal over an alleged liquor excise scam.

Quoting a media report, Malviya said that the Excise department of the previous Trinamool government had altered the policy to extort money from bottlers on every crate of liquor.

He alleged that the money extorted from the bottlers found their way to Trinamool Congress and its General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

In a post on X, Malviya said, "After the Delhi Liquor Excise scam, it is now Bengal's turn. The Excise Department altered policy and bottlers were extorted on every crate of liquor and beer. The proceeds, amounting to thousands of crores, found their way to the Trinamool Congress and Abhishek Banerjee."

According to the media report, the state's liquor policy was altered in 2017, allegedly at the behest of the Trinamool Congress government, enabling the state to monopolise liquor distribution.

The new excise policy was designed to twist the arms of erstwhile private wholesalers into paying levies to the tune of thousands of crores.

According to a confidential report by the Excise Department, all this carving up of state revenue was carried out in the name of averting cartelisation, transparency, and equitable access of liquor to all parts of the state and promotion of consumer choice.

It has been also learned that the report has already been tabled with West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, too, has been briefed on the matter.

The report alleged that the whole policy of the introduction of distributors was designed in order to siphon off money for the Trinamool Congress in the name of garnering revenue for the government exchequer.

Allegedly, the distributors used to remit a part of their profit, which ought to have gone into government coffers, but went to the Trinamool Congress. A charge of Rs 4 per crate as rental for their godown and Rs 3 per crate as transport cost was charged. The bottler and the foreign liquor manufacturers were forced to pay this exorbitant rental and transport charges. This tribute, the report says, made its way to Abhishek Banerjee.