Excise dept seeks Finance dept’s nod to create specialised suspense account
Kolkata: The state Excise department has sought the nod of the Finance department for creating a specialised suspense account for keeping the money received through auction of a vehicle that has been seized during a raid against illicit liquor.
The department has already received confiscation order for two vehicles, one of which is an high-end one and issued a public notice on January 16 so that any person who has legitimate claim of any one of the two may present his/ her representation with requisite documents before the Excise Directorate within two months of the issuance of the notice. If nobody turns up during two months of the issuance of the notice, ex parte decision will be taken in connection with confiscation of the vehicles.
The public notice in the website of the Excise Directorate mentions the conveyance registration number and the model for both the vehicles.
The move follows an amendment in the Bengal Excise Act 1909 that was brought in effect last year empowering the Excise department to auction the vehicles seized during raids against illicit liquor. The department will keep the money recovered through auction in its own bank account and if the vehicle owner is not convicted during trial, the amount will be returned to him otherwise the state government will forfeit the money.
According to a senior official in the Excise department 70 other vehicles are in the process of confiscation.
“The investment for the vehicle happens to be the only substantial investment in such spurious liquor business. The other investments involved in the business are of very less value. Hence, if the vehicle caught with such illicitly distilled liquor is auctioned when it is in good condition, good money can be recovered from it. Most importantly, the action will instill a sense of fear of losing the vehicle in a person who gives his vehicle against rent for such illegal business,” said a senior official of the Excise department. Cases associated with such illegal business usually go on for a long period of time and during the trial, the seized vehicle remains abandoned in open spaces and automatically gets damaged. In the last five years, 2,000 odd vehicles that include both two-wheelers and four-wheelers impounded by the Excise department during raids against spurious liquor have been lying abandoned in different police stations as well as garages of the department leading to irreparable damage.
Senior officials of the Excise department during their visits in different places for overseeing the activities of the enforcement team of the Excise department have come across a good number of vehicles of very high value getting damaged due to non use over years.
Illicit liquor has an adverse impact on public health and in some cases it has proved to be fatal too.