Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
CHANDIGARH, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today warned the liquor contractors against the new excise policy being brought in by Sukhbir Badal saying the new government will cancel it.
“Please do not bite the bait and get trapped as our government will reserve the right to scrap it since this is going to harm Punjab’s revenue collection”, he warned.
He said on the one hand this government has already turned the state bankrupt and on the other hand it was now trying to block the main source of state’s revenue for another two years.
In a statement issued here today, Capt Amarinder said, Sukhbir, who holds the Excise and Taxation portfolio, proposed to allot the liquor licenses for three years instead of one year in the last year of his tenure.
“This is not just unprecedented and unwarranted but also unethical and unconstitutional as this government has the mandate for five years only and it cannot make a policy that will have serious financial implications for the next government for next two years”, he said, while announcing that his government will scrap the policy and those opting for it will do it at their own risk.
The PCC president maintained that this was an obvious attempt by Sukhbir to allot the licenses in arbitrary way for the considerations he is best known for.
“Everybody knows this is an election year and Sukhbir is simply tweaking the excise policy in a way to pocket maximum revenue himself which should otherwise go to the state coffers”, he remarked, while asserting that he will not allow that to happen.
The former Chief Minister said, if Sukhbir really thought that the new policy is in state’s interest, which actually it is not, he should better wait and let the next government take a call on it.
“But it is his personal interest more than the interest of the state that has made Sukhbir to change the policy and raise funds for the elections while virtually exhausting the main source of state revenue ahead of time”, he said.
