BANGALORE, Oct 22: Unable to keep up its promise of enforcing prohibition in Karnataka, the Janata Dal government headed by J H Patel has decided to restrict the sale of arrack from November 1 as a face saving exercise.While the number of arrack retail outlets would be brought down to 8,000 from the present 20,000 all over the State, the number of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) shops might proliferate. Consequent IMFL sales may make up for the possible revenue loss.Under the guise of the `New Excise Policy' coming into effect from November 1, the Government has taken care to safeguard its interest in excise revenue which is the second largest revenue earning source after Commercial Taxes.The new policy envisages opening of an arrack retail outlet in each of the 5,000 gram panchayats. Doing away with the existing procedure of auctioning retail outlets, the government has decided to levy licence fee depending upon the location of the shop. In gram panchayats the fee will be Rs 3 lakh a year, while it will be Rs 5 lakh in town municipalities, Rs 8 lakh in city municipalities and Rs 12 lakh in corporation areas.Allotment of licence will be decided by lots.The government has already invited applications from those desiring to sell arrack and the draw of lots would be held by Deputy Commissioners in all the 27 districts on Oct 26 to 28.To start with, arrack will be made available in sachets through MSIL and Mandya Sugar factory till arrangements are made to bottle the intoxicant. If the two companies are unable to maintain the supply, the government would engage some other sugar factories in the cooperative sector to supply arrack.Finance Minister Siddaramaiah, who also holds the excise portfolio told The Indian Express on Wednesday that the new excise policy was based on a report given by a Cabinet sub committee headed by him for suggesting ways and means of imposing prohibition in the State without affecting the coffers and also the interests of those involved in the trade.Though the government would lose at least Rs 150 crore from the targeted excise revenue of Rs 950 crore this year, Siddaramaiah said that such a decision had to be taken in the interest of people. ``We expect some drop in the sales of arrack but I am hopeful of making up the revenue loss during the next excise year through increased sales of IMFL'', he said.Admitting that the government could not keep its poll promise of imposing total prohibition, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the experience in all the neighbouring states show that imposition of prohibition had led to many social problems including illicit brewing.He said that the enforcement department had been asked to check illicit brewing.Since there was going to be only only retail outlet in a gram panchayat, the licensee himself would watch for any illicit brewing, he said.The JD Government headed by H D Deve Gowda had announced soon after it came to power in 1994 that prohibition will be imposed in a phased from June 1996.But after the change in the leadership, his successor Patel had sought some more time to enforce prohibition and also appointed a Cabinet sub-committee to go into the issue.
