New excise policy mooted

HYDERABAD: The state government plans to bring forth a new excise policy with effect from the next financial year and will make an announcement on it in the budget session of the Assembly scheduled to begin in the second week of February.The government wants to implement a clean and transparent excise policy, a draft of which is being prepared. After receiving the draft, the government will formulate the new policy in consultation with all stake-holders.Prohibition and excise minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, while speaking to mediapersons here on Sunday, admitted that the open auction system introduced in 2005 was giving room for malpractices.If Anti-Corruption Bureau officials were raiding the offices of liquor syndicates, it only showed chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s commitment to providing clean and transparent governance, he said.The minister said the government received complaints that officials of the enforcement wing of the excise department were in nexus with the liquor syndicate in Karimnagar district. Acting on it, the ACB investigated the case and established that officials had colluded with liquor syndicates.Taking this as cue, the ACB conducted raids all over the state and  will submit a report to the government on those who are in league with  liquor syndicates. Venkata Ramana said that not only politicians but those representing influential sections of society were also involved in it. He dismissed as baseless the allegation that the government was targeting only a section of politicians.