Step up efforts to curb saleof illicit liquor\, officials told

Andhra Prades

Step up efforts to curb saleof illicit liquor, officials told

Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Excise and Commercial Taxes K. Narayana Swamy on Thursday directed the officials of the Excise Department to engage the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) to effectively curb sale of illicit liquor and country arrack.

The Minister held review meetings with the officials of the Excise and the Commercial Taxes Department.

Referring to the cases of the people who are unable to buy liquor resorting to consuming sanitiser, he asked the officials to take up an awareness drive to propagate the harms of consuming sanitiser. He also wanted the officials to coordinate with their counterparts in the border States and initiate effective measures to control the menace of illicit transport of liquor and arrack. He said the department staff should also keep an eye on the sale of black jaggery used in manufacture of arrack.

Addressing the officials of the Commercial Taxes wing, he wanted them to keep a constant vigil on ‘zero bill’ trade transactions and initiate effective measures to end the practice.

He also wanted them to focus on collection of professional tax and recovery of old arrears and said the GST revenue collection had dwindled due to the COVID-19 pandemic effect.

Special Chief Secretary, Revenue, Rajat Bhargav, Commissioner, Department of Commercial Taxes, Peeyush Kumar, SEB Commissioner Vineet Brijlal and others were present.

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