No liquor be sold without scanning bottles: Delhi govt

To prevent leakage of the special corona fee on liquor sale, the Delhi Excise Department, here on Sunday, said no liquor be sold without proper scanning of the bottle. Only 10-15 per cent liquor bottles were being scanned before sale, it added.

"According to the ESCIMS (excess supply chain information management system) data, only 10-15 per cent of liquor is being scanned before sale. The practice, besides blatant violation of the Excise Department orders, is likely to lead to submission of inaccurate daily sales information, sought by the Delhi Finance Minister after imposition of the 70 per cent special corona fee on the MRP of each bottle, and also creation of MSR gap," K.P. Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Excise, said in the order.

The department said some L-6 and L-8 liquor outlets were not following the directions that "no liquor sale should be done without proper scanning of each bottle".

L-6 is the licence to retail Indian liquor and L-8 for country liquor.

The order, a copy of which is with , asked all the outlets to complete the monthly stock record (MSR). "Any other vend, which will be allowed to open in future, will have to first complete the MSR," it said.

The department also said it had also been receiving complaints of over-charging from customers.

In 2013, the Delhi government introduced the ESCIMS to check illicit supply and sale of liquor and also to plug tax loopholes.

In October 2019, the Delhi government had issued a similar order asking for 100 per cent scanning and warned that the violation would lead to suspension or cancellation of licence.

Of the 863 liquor outlets in Delhi, 389 are privately owned. The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation, the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation and the Delhi Consumer's Cooperative Wholesale Store control sale of liquor at 475 shops.

The sale of liquor was banned during the lockout, announced to check the spread of coronavirus. On May 4, the Delhi government allowed standalone liquor shops to reopen. It imposed a special corona fee on the sale on May 5.

On May 18, the liquor sale was also allowed at the shops in various markets. However, they could operate on alternate days.

( With inputs from IANS )