Bengaluru: Ahead of elections to the state assembly the Congress party appears to be treading into unchartered waters. If indications are right the government is being coaxed or rather beaten into compromising of consumer safety and revenue tampering model of excise tax bands. The government has kept in readiness a process to introduce excise tax bands that is cheaper and more susceptible to tampering.
Experts in the industry are apprehensive that if the new excise band comes into force it will pave way for unscrupulous methods of production, leading to health hazards and more importantly loss of revenue to the government. In a recent tweet senior politician Amar Singh of Samajwadi Party has pointed out how the Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government was losing over Rs. 6000 crores per annum due to faulty excise tax band and millions of tipplers are consuming spurious liquor. In the tweet Amar Singh has also commended the Siddaramiah government for using safe and tamperproof excise band.
What is a excise tax band?
It is what they stick over the mouth of the bottle over and above the cap of a liquor bottle. This band ensures that the liquor has come out of a legal production line with due payment of excise tax to the government and since it has come out a legal production line the consumer safety is ensured. A typical excise band has as many as 50 safety features that are provided by the government to the excise department, these bands are mechanically stuck over the cap of the bottle under the supervision and seal of the department complete with a unique number of each batch and bottle. The new generation excise band which is made in paper with security markings, some of the markings are similar to those we find on the currency notes. The process of production is elaborate and cost and expertise intensive.
But despite the accolades from the arch rival of Congress party, Amar Singh, the state government is planning to introduce a new labeling system which is polythene based halogram band that can be replicated easily with a small industrial set up costing a fraction of the investment that goes into the paper based excise tax band. All over the world the paper based tax band is being used, while a few states in India have switched over to the polythene based bands and public health activists, consumer groups have advised the governments about the health hazards that the consumers are risking due to the duplication of liquor of well known IML brands.
The committee chaired by Director of Government Printing, Stationery & Publications, Bengaluru studied the available technologies and security features for this kind of application and submitted the detailed report recommending paper based seal with high end security features along with hologram features. Further, the committee has noticed that the polyester labels can be easily duplicable with very minimum investment and also brought to the notice of the Government that these polyester labels are non bio-degradable and this will create the environmental issues. All the members of committee unanimously agreed to all points in the report, and signed and submitted to the Government.
