Atishi defends AAP’s excise policy after CAG’s report, says did “right thing by removing old policy”

New Delhi [India], February 25 (ANI): After the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Delhi’s excise policy was presented in the Delhi Assembly on Monday, Delhi’s Leader of Opposition and AAP leader Atishi defended the previous Arvind Kejriwal-led government, stating that the report pointed out the flaws in the old excise policy, which the AAP government had previously exposed and came up with a new excise policy.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday Atishi said, “The excise audit report was presented in the Delhi Assembly today. Its seven chapters are on the excise policy from 2017-21, and one chapter is on the new excise policy. The Delhi government had exposed the flaws and corruption of the old excise policy to the people of Delhi.

Atishi further alleged that under the previous policy, liquor was being illegally sourced from neighbouring states, causing financial losses to Delhi.

“Under that policy, liquor was brought illegally from Haryana and UP… This report is repeating the same thing that we said that the people of Delhi are incurring losses due to the old policy…This policy makes it clear that the AAP government took the right decision by removing the old policy…,” she added further.

“This report has confirmed our point. There was corruption in how much liquor was being sold. This report shows that more than 28 per cent of corruption was being done by the contractors, and the money was going into the pockets of the brokers. This report shows that black marketing of liquor was happening, and everyone knew which party people had the liquor contracts. The liquor contractors made profits by calculating the cost price in an incorrect manner…,” She said.

The BJP government in Delhi led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta tabled the CAG report on the Delhi Excise Policy.

The ‘Performance Audit on Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi’ covers a period of four years from 2017-18 to 2020-21 and examines the regulation and supply of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and Foreign Liquor in Delhi.

The report is one of the 14 pending CAG reports on the previous Aam Aami Party government’s performance.

According to the report tabled today, the audit observed several discrepancies in the way the Excise Department monitored and regulated the supply of liquor in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It showed that the state government suffered cumulative losses of more than Rs 2,000 crore due to the 2021-2022 excise policy.

The working of the Excise Department raises several questions about the way the Department is fulfilling its responsibility. The total financial implication of the audit findings is approximately Rs 2,026.91 crore, as per an overview of the report.