CAG flays Excise Department for double speak

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Most people treat the Excise Department’s oft-repeated objective that it would one day lead tipplers to non-alcoholic ways as pure drivel. But the department has courted trouble now with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India pulling it up by the ears for adopting policies that are fundamentally contradictory in nature. The CAG’s Performance Audit of the Excise Department has criticised it for making policy statements about discouraging alcohol consumption on the one hand while liberally doling out bar licences on the other. The CAG report points out how the annual Abkari policies of the State Government emphasise de-addiction initiatives, while the number of liquor outlets in the state have steadily increased. During the five-year period from 2006-07 to 2010-2011, the consumption of IMFL increased by 63 per cent from 132.65 lakh cases to 217.02 lakh cases. Beer sales shot up from 50.05 lakh cases to 85.61 lakh cases. Gross sale doubled from `3,143.29 crore to `6,730.30 crore. So much for discouraging liquor consumption. “We noticed that the population of the state increased by about 1.5 lakh persons per year whereas the increase in annual liquor consumption ranged from 24 lakh to 35 lakh cases during the review period, indicating an increase in the rate of consumption,’’ the report says. The Abkari Policy of 2009-2010 even promised de-addiction centres in selected government hospitals with the co-operation of the Health Department. The CAG audit failed to discover even one.This, despite the government ordering in 2009-2010 that the centres were to be started in eight districts. The Abkari Policy of 2007-08 promises awareness programmes among students and public about the ill-effects of alcohol consumption. But the CAG has found that `20 lakh provided in each budget was pitiably inadequate to have any ‘perceptible impact.’ While the period of study of the CAG report involved largely the LDF Government’s tenure, it should be remembered that the incumbent UDF regime’s liquor policy also stresses de-addiction initiatives. Statistics tabled by the present Excise Minister K Babu in the Assembly show that after the UDF Government came to power nine months ago, 32 new bar licences were issued. Twenty licences were issued in panchayat areas. Seven more applications are pending before the government, according to a written reply Babu gave in the Assembly on Monday.