Excise dept imposes ₹ 1.1 crore fine on Gurdaspur distillery

THE DISTILLERY HAD MANUFACTURED BEER AND WAS TRYING TO EVADE DUTY BY DISPATCHING IT WITHOUT MANDATORY HOLOGRAMS AND PAYMENT OF FEES AND DUTIES

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab excise and taxation department has imposed a penalty of Rs 1.1 crore on Adie Broswon Breweries Private Limited for allegedly violating provisions of the excise laws.

The order to impose the fine on the distillery at Gurdaspur, which has been part of the highprofile Chadha Group, was issued by state excise commissioner Rajat Agarwal on Tuesday, according to a senior official in the know of the matter.

A notice was issued to the distillery for excise law violations on May 23 following an inspection. During the inspection, it was reported that the distillery had manufactured beer and was trying to “evade duty by dispatching it without mandatory holograms and payment of fees and duties”.

Before issuing the order, the department gave a hearing to the company representatives who denied any violation, said the official who did not want to be identified. The proceedings have been concluded in about two months. The excise department had carried out a total of 40 inspections at distilleries and bottling plants in May 2020 and noticed irregularities in 11 of these, with liquor bottles without batch numbers and holograms having been seized at several places.

The stock checking was carried out after some contractors had raised the issue that liquor from other states was being pushed into Punjab and distilleries here were not supplying alcohol to other states and selling their stock in the state only. The official said notices were issued to these distilleries and bottling plants, but some of them started adopting delaying tactics during the hearing of the cases by expressing their inability to join for physical hearing. However, the department has started holding hearing through video conference and continued the proceedings.