FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Permits for transportation of maximum quantity of liquor from Goa are not valid for Maharashtra and Karnataka, Goa Excise Commissioner Narayan Gad said, while reacting to Maharashtra Excise Minister’s threat to slap Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against those smuggling liquor from Goa to Maharashtra using Goa permits.
The people transporting liquor from Goa to Maharashtra are now likely to face stringent action under various Sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Maharashtra Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai has instructed the Excise officials of Kolhapur and Sindhudurg Districts to take necessary actions in this regard and to set up temporary portable cabins as checkpoints on unattended smaller routes connecting Goa and Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra which shares the border between the two neighbouring States.
Maharashtra Excise officials went on to add that the permits given by liquor vendors to their customers in Goa do not bear any significance in Maharashtra and it is not permissible under the law to transport even a single bottle of liquor from Goa to Maharashtra.
They have stated that Goa permits are of zero value and that the Goa liquor vendors were issuing it to customers for their business profits.
When contacted, Excise Commissioner Narayan Gad said that transport of maximum quantity of liquor for personal consumption allowed to take outside the State is as per the Rule 19B of the Goa Excise Duty Rules, 1964.
He said that liquor either one bottle or two bottles are permitted from Goa to Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Daman and Diu, Manipur and Kolkata. But it is not allowed in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka.
When contacted, Goa Liquor Traders Association President Dattaprasad Naik said they issue permits to take two liquor bottles only to Daman and Diu and Odisha and not to other States. He said that any person visiting Goa by road is mostly from neighbouring Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and not from other states.
He demanded that the State government should take up this issue with the Maharashtra and Karnataka counterparts and ensure that the State permits are honoured by them.
According to Naik, people from North and East India are not buying liquor from Goa because it is costlier here than in their States.
