PORVORIM: The Goa Assembly on Wednesday witnessed heated discussion between Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and opposition MLAs over alleged scams and lapses in the excise department causing huge revenue leakages as observed in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, for the year ended March 31, 2020.
Replying to a starred question jointly tabled by MLAs Cruz Silva, Vijai Sardesai and Carlos Alvares Ferreira regarding observations and suggestions made by CAG in its report on performance audit on levy and collection of the excise revenue in report No 1 of the year 2020, the Chief Minister said that the loss estimated by CAG in its report was notional of about Rs 7.59 crore on non-renewal of licences, short levy of additional fee to casinos and short levy due to incorrect MRP etc.
“Rs 7.59 crore loss was wastage loss and we have clarified it to the CAG,” said Sawant. Silva said that the CAG in its report had indicted the excise department for gross violation of all revenue norms. The department was not following any of the norms and only one of the corrective actions taken was the transfer of four officers in October last year.
He demanded to know the quantum of punishment to those found involved in alleged scam.
Sawant claimed that the State Excise revenue of Rs 491.79 crore formed 10.46 per cent of the total tax revenue of Rs 4700.56 crore in 2019-2020, which was one of the major sources of revenue for the State. From 2014 to 2019, the excise revenue increased gradually over previous year, except during 2016-17 when the increase was negligible, he said.
Fatorda MLA raised concerns about the major lapses in the Excise Department, particularly pointing out the ‘flawed licence systems.
He sought to know whether the government intends to grant retail liquor licences at the Mopa International Airport, to which the Chief Minister claimed that retail liquor shops are situated at all the airports across the world
and that it was routinely practiced. awant told Silva that the government will take action against those found involved in Pernem excise ‘scam’ based on the internal audit report which is currently underway.
To another supplementary question asked by Sardesai about liquor outlets operated by some non-Goans beyond midnight, Sawant said that Goan licence holders were illegally subletting their liquor outlets and whenever inspection is conducted, the person in charge claims to be an employee hired by the owner. He said that the government will conduct surveys in all Talukas to ensure that no excise licence has been transferred to non-Goans or allowed outsiders to run retail liquor shops.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas, criticised the Government for not providing detailed data of revenue collection from different liquor brands. He also questioned whether the government had any mechanism to check MRP-wise and brand-wise liquor sales in the State.
Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao pointed out that despite gross irregularities found in the excise department, the Chief Minister was refusing to acknowledge it as a “scam”.
The internal audit of the Excise Department has failed to identify any revenue loss, leading to criticism of the government’s handling of the situation.
