Manish Sisodia Arrested: What is the Delhi Liquor Scam?
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Manish Sisodia is an Indian politician and a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is the ruling party in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. He is currently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, a position he has held since February 2015.
Delhi Education Revolution
Manish Sisodia is known for his work in the field of education, and he played a vital role in the implementation of the Delhi government’s flagship education reform program, the “Delhi Education Revolution”. Under this program, the Delhi government has taken several steps to improve the quality of education in government schools, such as providing free education, uniforms, and textbooks to students and improving infrastructure and teacher training.
Apart from his work in education, Sisodia has also been actively involved in other areas, such as health, water supply, and sanitation. He has been a vocal advocate of transparency in governance and has worked towards making the Delhi government more accountable to its citizens.
It is worth noting that the information I have provided is accurate up to my knowledge cutoff date of September 2021, and any developments that have occurred since then may not be reflected in my response.
Why was Manish Sisodia Arrested?
Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been arrested by the CBI after an eight-hour-long interrogation in the Delhi liquor scam case. Sisodia has been questioned by the CBI several times before this as well. Now Aam Aadmi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party are faces to face regarding this. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had attacked the central government by tweeting on this issue in the morning itself
What is the Delhi Liquor Scam?
After the arrest of Deputy CM, the discussion of the liquor scam started once again. Questions are being raised what was the new liquor policy because of which all this ruckus started? How did the liquor scam happen? What are the allegations of the BJP? What is in the CBI charge sheet? What is your government’s response to the allegations? Let us know…
First, know what was the new liquor policy of Delhi.
On 17 November 2021, the Delhi government implemented the new liquor policy in the state. Under this, 32 zones were created in the capital and a maximum of 27 shops were to be opened in each zone. In this way, a total of 849 shops were to be opened.
Manish Sisodia Was Responsible For New Liquor Policy
In the new liquor policy, all liquor shops in Delhi were made private. Earlier, 60 per cent of liquor shops in Delhi were government owned and 40 per cent were private. After the implementation of the new policy, it became 100 per cent private. The government had argued that it would benefit Rs 3,500 crore.
The government has also increased the license fee manifold under Manish Sisodiya, For the L-1 license for which earlier the contractors had to pay 25 lakhs, after the implementation of the new liquor policy, the contractors had to pay Rs 5 crores. Similarly, there was a significant increase in the license fee in other categories as well.
Everything is good then why are the allegations of scams?
The new liquor policy is accused of causing loss to both the public and the government. At the same time, big liquor businessmen are being said to be benefited. This is the allegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The matter of scams is coming to the fore in three ways. To understand this, let us look at some statistics.
Allegations of benefiting big businessmen by huge increase in license fees
Contractors have to take licenses for liquor sales. For this, the government has fixed the license fee. The government has created many categories. Under this license is given to sell liquor, beer, foreign liquor etc. Now, for example, for the license for which earlier the contractor had to pay Rs 25 lakh, after the implementation of the new liquor policy, he had to pay Rs 5 crore for the same.
Delhi government deliberately increased the license fee
It is alleged that the Delhi government deliberately increased the license fee to benefit big liquor traders. Due to this, the shops of small contractors were closed and only the big liquor mafia got licenses in the market. It is also the allegation of the opposition that in lieu of this, the liquor mafia gave a huge amount of bribe to your leaders and officers.
The government is telling a profitable deal: The government argues that by increasing the license fee, the government earned one-time revenue. This compensated for the reduction in excise duty and VAT by the government.
Allegations of huge reduction in government revenue in retail sales
The second allegation pertains to the sale of liquor. For example, suppose earlier if a 750 ml bottle of liquor was available for Rs.530. Then on this one bottle, the retail businessman used to get a profit of Rs 33.35, while the government got Rs 223.89 as excise tax and Rs 106 as VAT. This means the government used to get a profit of Rs 329.89 on one bottle. With the new liquor policy, it is being claimed that the government is playing in this profit.
It is claimed that in the new liquor policy, the price of the same 750 ml bottle of liquor has increased from Rs 530 to Rs 560. Apart from this, the profit of the retail trader also increased from Rs 33.35 to Rs 363.27 directly. This means the profit of retail traders has increased more than 10 times. At the same time, the benefit of Rs 329.89 to the government has come down to Rs 3.78. This includes excise duty of Rs 1.88 and VAT of Rs 1.90.
These seven flaws also raised questions about the intentions of the Delhi government.
When the case a liquor scam caught fire, the central government also got it investigated. The Chief Secretary conducted an inquiry and prepared a report, which was sent to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi two months ago. Seven points have also been questioned in this report.
- On the instructions of Manish Sisodia Arrested, the Excise Department returned Rs 30 crore to the L-1 bidder of the airport zone. The bidder was not able to obtain the necessary NOC from the airport authorities. In such a situation, the security deposit deposited by him should have been deposited in the government account, but the government returned that money to the bidder.
- The Excise Department changed the formula for rate calculation of foreign liquor by issuing an order on November 8, 2021, without approval from the Central Government also under the Instructions of Manish Sisodiya. The undue benefit was given to the license holders by doing away with the import pass fee of Rs 50 on each case of beer. Due to this, there was a huge loss to the government exchequer.
- Financial benefits were extended to L7Z (Retail) licensees by diluting the provisions of the tender documents. That too when action was to be taken against such license holders for non-payment of the license fee, interest and penalty.
- The government waived the license fee of Rs 144.36 crore in the name of compensating for the losses incurred during the Corona period only to benefit the liquor traders, bypassing the interests of other businessmen of Delhi, whereas in the tender documents, liquor was not sold on any such basis. There was no provision anywhere for giving such exemption or compensation in license fees to the vendors.
- Under the new policy, without any concrete basis and without discussing it with anyone, the government put the condition of opening at least two liquor shops in every ward in the tender. Later, the Excise Department allowed licensees to open additional shops in conforming wards instead of non-conforming wards without seeking approval from the central government.
- No action was taken against the licensees promoting liquor through social media, banners and hoardings. This is in violation of Rules 26 and 27 of the Delhi Excise Rules, 2010.
- Their operational tenure was first extended from April 1, 2022, to May 31, 2022, and then from June 1, 2022, to July 31, 2022, for the benefit of the license holders without increasing the license fee. For this, no approval was taken from the Central Government and the Lieutenant Governor. Later, by calling a cabinet meeting on July 14 in a hurry, work was done to legalize many such illegal decisions. Despite the increase in the sale of liquor, instead of increasing the revenue, 37.51% less revenue was received.
Summary
Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodiya was Arrested due to the Liquor Scam case. And Mansish Sisodiya Arrested today will be the Question of the existence of Aam Adami Pary in Delhi in the next election.
Manish Sisodia is an Indian politician and a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is the ruling party in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. He is currently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, a position he has held since February 2015. Delhi Education Revolution Manish Sisodia is known for…
Manish Sisodia is an Indian politician and a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is the ruling party in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. He is currently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, a position he has held since February 2015. Delhi Education Revolution Manish Sisodia is known for…