Haryana's tryst with Prohibition failed because of political, economic costs

BY VISHAL GULATI

Chandigarh, July 30 Haryana's tryst with less than two years of prohibition in the late 1990's adds another chapter to the chequered history of prohibition in India.

Delivering on an election promise on the back of the vote of women, the Bansi Lal-led Haryana Vikas Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government imposed prohibition in July 1996. Exactly 21 months later, it decided to lift prohibition in April 1998, at the political cost, apart from economic and legal ramifications.

But does prohibition really work?

It's a well-known fact that the state's atoxic tragedy' led to surge in liquor smuggling and mushrooming up of backyard stills producing arrack, a poor man's liquor. In this short span over 90,000 cases were registered for violating prohibition laws.

Then government blamed five wet states that ringed around the state for uninterrupted flow of alcohol into the state. At that time, one can spot rows of liquor shops and makeshift bars on the borders of Delhi and Punjab doing whopping business.

Government figures say the imposition of prohibition has cost the state coffer Rs 1,300 crore.

The excise revenue collection, mainly from the auction of liquor vends, in 2021-22 fiscal was Rs 7,938.8 crore, a 17 per cent increase over Rs 6,791.98 crore in 2020-21 fiscal.

In the current fiscal, the VAT on imported foreign liquor has been slashed from 10 per cent to three per cent and reduced from 13-14 per cent to 12 per cent in case of country liquor, wine, beer and India Made Foreign Liquor