Excise officials suspect spirit was intended for manufacture of Indian made foreign liquor
The state excise department on Sunday seized an LPG tanker which was being used to illegally ferry 35,000 litres of spirit worth Rs 17.5 lakh along the Kolhapur-Ratnagiri highway. The seizure exposed how liquor smugglers are changing their modus operandi to evade suspicion and make a quick buck. Excise officials said that the spirit was probably intended for the manufacture of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL).
Has this happened before?
This is among the largest seizures of spirit from a single vehicle. "For the first time, we have come across a gas tanker being used to smuggle spirit," a senior state excise official told dna.
Where was the tanker headed?
Based on a tip-off, excise officials seized the tanker at Nanij village in Ratnagiri on the Kolhapur- Ratnagiri highway. The excise official said that the vehicle, which was registered in Karnataka, was being used to ferry spirit from Haryana to either Goa or a southern state.
The vehicle carried the markings of a public sector petroleum company's LPG brand and an examination of papers produced by the driver and cleaner, who were arrested, revealed that they were bogus. The bogus pass with the duo said the tanker was headed from Panipat in Haryana to Goa.
Since it was difficult to open the tanker on the road, it was taken to a gas pump, where it was found that instead of gas, the vehicle was carrying 35,000 litres of spirit worth Rs 17.50 lakh. The total value of the seizure is Rs 47.53 lakh.
Why put spirits in a gas tanker?
"The smugglers may have chosen a gas tanker as it evades detection and also puts off officials from inspecting it in depth due to the inflammable nature of LPG. The tanker had been modified internally to store the spirit. This spirit can also be used for industrial purposes, though we believe it may have been intended for manufacturing of liquor. It is very tough to locate such vehicles without a specific tip-off," the official said.
State a transit point for smugglers
Maharashtra follows a policy of discouraging liquor consumption through high prices and low sales and has one of the highest excise duty regimes in India. However, neighbouring states and union territories like Goa and Daman have comparatively liberal policies and the cheaper costs of liquor there are a huge incentive for smugglers and bootleggers to smuggle in the brew to Maharashtra. With neighbouring Gujarat under prohibition, Maharashtra has also become a transit point for transporting 6liquor from states like Haryana and Madhya Pradesh to the dry state.
In August, a state excise flying squad had tracked the movement of a vehicle through toll nakas to detain it at Yeola in Nashik with 5,425 litres of ENA tucked away in 155 cans carrying 35 litres each covered with sacks of groundnut shells to prevent detection. A squad had also nabbed 3,000 litres of spirit concealed in a tempo at Songir in Dhule.
IMFL's soaring sales
In 2013-14, IMFL consumption rose by 7.84 per cent to end at 1,615.06 lakh bulk litres (BL) in 2013-14 versus 1,497.62 lakh BL in 2012-13. The sales of beer have however headed south at just 2,986.09 lakh BL in 2013-14, down from 3,169.34 lakh BL in the previous fiscal (-5.78%). Country liquor (CL) too fell to 3,210.97 lakh BL from 3382.99 lakh BL (-5.08%). However, wine consumption rose by 9.71% to end at 50.56 lakh BL from the previous 46.08 lakh BL.
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