UP denies anomalies in excise policy

Lucknow, June 21 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh government today said the excise policy adopted in 2001-02 had given an additional revenue of Rs 1,100 in the last five yrs with eight new distilleries coming up in the state.

UP earned an additional revenue of Rs 600 crore in the last two financial yrs. Of the eight new distillaries, five had already been set up while the remaing three, at Lakhimpuri Kheri, Gorakhpur and Barabanki, would come up soon.

State chief secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpai, denying favouritism to any certain industry by violating policy, told reporters here the government had not changed the policy introduced by the previous Mayawati government.

''We investigated if there was any tax evasion by distillaries, which was also found negative,'' Mr Bajpai said, in presence of principal secretary to CM Anil Kumar.

He said hence there was no change in the old policy so no anomalies were found.

Talking of initiatives taken by UP to promote distilleries in UP, Mr Bajpai said at present there were 47 units of which 20 produced mixed liquor, 17 industrial liquor and 7 potable alcohol.

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