mangalore today
name
name
name
Thursday, March 28

Wine merchants woes, chief minister requested to look into early

Wine merchants woes, chief minister requested to look into early


Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, May 22, 2016:Speaking to the media on May 21, Saturday, at Udupi, General Secretary of Federation of Wine Association (Mangaluru division) Govind Raj Hedge said the assurances made by the government to look into the problems of wine merchants have remained only empty words. He said the government supervision is very important as the problems concerning the VAT are trouble for wine merchants. As such Federation of Wine Merchants Association, Bengaluru, has demanded immediate intervention of the chief minister to sort out the problems encountered by wine merchants.

The government should withdraw the compulsion of VAT.  He said the income generated by the state Excise department is more than the income generated in many other states.  He noted that the population of Karnataka is 6,60,76,021 and the income generated is Rs 15,255.68 crore for the year 2015-16. The state government’s net profit from liquor sale for the last 13 years is Rs 1,01,900.23 crore. MSIL outlets should not be opened until the next order from Supreme Court.

Regarding the other demand of lifting of the ban on liquor sale for the 48 hours in prior to the elections, he said that the Rule 5 of Panchayat Raj Act should be revised in order to ensure the liquor business during the gram panchayat elections.  He said it has been one month since assurances were made by the chief minister, but they have not yet been fulfilled.

He said that the license fee is hiked by 25% and the license holders are asked to pay the fee by May end. However, the license holders should be given time till June as some are unable to pay the fees. The order for the hike of 25% is yet to be announced, he said.

A meeting is to be held on May 31 to discus the future course of action and to decide the date of protest against government’s lackadaisical approach. The police too harass the wine merchants by registering unnecessary cases against the traders, he said. They register cases against drunken driving right in front of the liquor outlets to spoil the reputation of the liquor merchants, he accused.

The stamp duty is stayed by the Supreme Court and the stay order was passed on May 12, 2015. This is the outcome of the attempts made by the Wine Merchants Association, said Hegde.  The wine merchants struggle all day and pay the tax regularly. But despite this, they are harassed, he charged. He demanded that indirect pressure to buy extra liquor should be stopped. He said action should be taken against not following the rules while giving licenses for CL 4 and CL 7.


Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print
Error:NULL
Write your Comments on this Article
Your Name
Native Place / Place of Residence
Your E-mail
Your Comment
You have characters left.
Security Validation
Enter the characters in the image above