Citing low sales, liquor contractors in state refuse to pay excise tax for Aug

CHANDIGARH: As a mark of protest against the Punjab government’s orders to close liquor vends by 6:30pm on all weekdays, the contractors decided to not deposit the excise tax for the month of August.

The vend owners say that their sales peak in the evening hours but due to early closure, they were missing out on crucial sales. “We are also losing a lot of business due to the complete shutdown on weekends, so much so that we may not even be able to meet the sale targets,” said an office-bearer of the vend owners association.

Monday was the last date for depositing the excise duty, which, as per reports, many contractors have not deposited. Going by the annual revenue target of Rs 5,200 crore from liquor sales, the state government has missed the monthly installment of Rs. 430 crore.

“The vend owners had decided to stage a symbolic shut down of vends on Tuesday and hand over the keys to the deputy commissioners but we called back the protest, hoping that the government would come to our rescue,” said Anil Mahajan, a contractor from Hoshiarpur.

Rajwinder Singh Kahlon, who owns stakes in liquor in Jalandhar, said due to the early shutting of vends, there is a dip in business. He said that within the municipal limits of Jalandhar city, the average tax to be paid by vend owners comes to around Rs 92 lakh a day but due to poor sales, the total business has come down to Rs 60-65 lakh, which earlier was double.

“Now how do we pay taxes? The government should come to our rescue,” he suggested, while demanding that there was a need to extend the closure timings till at least 10 pm for sales targets to be met. He added the situation is likely to remain the same in September and October too and business owners would be the worst sufferers.

In May, the liquor contractors had refused to open vends, demanding changes in the excise policy to accommodate their concerns. Only 10% of the total of 5,800 vends in the state had reopened since the relaxations were brought in.

Finance commissioner (taxation) A Venu Prasad refused to accept that sales were down. Ruling out any scope for compensation, he said the fiscal indicators reveal that liquor contractors are making good sales.

SAY THEIR SALES PEAK IN THE EVENING BUT THE 6.30PM CLOSURE TIMING IS LEADING TO LOSSES