Sonipat: Haryana state government suspended three Excise & Taxation department officers Naresh Kumar Deputy Excise & Taxation Commissioner, Kashmir Singh Kamboj Assistant Excise & Taxation Commissioner and Rampal Singh Excise Inspector at Sonipat in alleged Rs 14 crore embezzlements by a L-13 liquor contractor at Murthal in Sonipat district under a conspiracy with suspended officers allowed contractor to lift nearly five lakh cases of country made liquor of value worth Rs 14 crore beyond the fixed quota to the contractor from the godown issuing excess permit duly signed by three alleged officers of the department without depositing excise duty by the contractor to whom fine of value worth Rs 14 crore was also imposed, besides canceling his license. When matter reached excise & taxation department head office Chandigarh and Panchkula a investigation team led by Ashok Kumar was rushed to Sonipat to investigated conspiracy and at the same time suspended officers for violating rules likely to cause heavy revenue loss to government.
Information reveals, without depositing tax by the contractor excise department officers at Sonipat had been issuing additional permits for supply of five lakh Desi liquor cases violating norms and tried to shelter contractor avoided to reply notices issued by the higher authorities of excise & taxation department. According to excise department rules the officers of excise department have to review the detail of supply of liquor and recovery of revenue every week and required to conduct audit of the godown twice in a month and in case of shortage of liquor in the godown have to serve notice to the contractor which was completely ignored by the concerned officers while issuing additional permits.
Meanwhile, decision has been taken by the state government to undertake audit of all L-1 godowns keeping stocks of English wine and L-13 godowns keeping stocks of Desi liquor in the state, keeping strict watch over revenue collection from the contractors taking strict action against those contractors violating direction. According to information excise department has recovered amount worth Rs 9 crore from the contractor at Murthal so far and trying to recover balance amount.
