LG VK Saxena recommends CBI inquiry into Delhi excise policy

NEW DELHI: Setting the stage for a major escalation in the Centre-AAP face-off, lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Friday recommended a CBI investigation into Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 after the chief secretary in a report flagged alleged violations of various acts and rules in addition to “deliberate and gross procedural lapses” to provide “undue benefits” to liquor licensees.
The excise department is headed by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also handles 17 other important portfolios, including home, finance, education, health, power, public works and water. Former Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain is already in judicial custody in an alleged money laundering case.
Sources claimed the LG has found substantive indications of “financial quid pro quo” at the top political level, adding that the excise minister “took and got executed major decisions in violation of the statutory provisions” and notified the excise policy that had “huge financial implications”.

“He also extended undue financial favours to the liquor licensees much after the tenders had been awarded and thus caused huge losses to the exchequer,” a source alleged.
Calling the case “fake”, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Sisodia was staunchly honest and he, his ministers and MLAs did not fear going to jail. The Delhi government had come out with a new excise policy in November 2021, thereby withdrawing from the retail trade of liquor and allowing private players to offer discounts on Indian and foreign-made alcohol beverages. Though the revised excise policy was expected to be announced in the new financial year, sources said the controversies around the previous one has delayed the process. The government earned close to Rs 7,000 crore by auctioning licences to private players for opening 849 stores in the Capital.

According to officials, chief secretary Naresh Kumar in his report dated July 8, 2022, flagged seven “procedural lapses” in the implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. According to the report, the excise department allowed a waiver of Rs. 144.36 crore to the liquor cartel on the tendered licence fee on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The department, claimed sources, also refunded the earnest money of Rs 30 crore to the lowest bidder for the Airport Zone licence after it failed to obtain the no-objection certificate from the authorities concerned.