GUWAHATI: Assam’s Excise Intelligence Bureau on Thursday conducted a raid against smuggling of Arunachali liquor and recovered 900 cases Arunachal-made IMFL at Sepon tiniali in Charaideo district.
Sailendra Pandey, PRO to excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya, said acting on a tip-off, personnel from Charaideo, Sapekhati, Sivsagar sadar excise circles, under the direction from superintendent of excise, Sivasagar, intercepted a truck bearing registration number AS01 LC 8788 carrying 900 cases of liquor concealed inside bags of rice.
“The truck, along with the vehicle driver, was detained at Moranhat police station and will be produced at chief judicial magistrate’s court of Sonari,” Pandey said. The vehicle carrying the illegal consignment has been seized by Golaghat Sadar party.
Since 2016, under the direction of excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya, the department has been carrying out various operations against such illegal consignments of liquor, resulting in seizure of illegal factories, godowns and huge amount of illegal Arunachal-made liquors in the state.
Recently during Durga Puja, the department successfully busted several illegal factories and godowns and huge consignments of Arunachal-made liquors were seized on the outskirts of Guwahati city. Suklabaidya has hailed EIB for this successful operation in Upper Assam ahead of Diwali.
Excise collection up
Pandey added that revenue collection for October was reported to be about Rs 215 crore, which is recorded to be the highest to date. In October last year, the collection was Rs 123 crore. “Second, the overall collection so far this year is Rs 970 crore, compared to Rs 924 crore in the last financial year till October,” Pandey added.