Over 70 people have been arrested for smuggling liquor from Delhi into Uttar Pradesh in the current financial year given the heavy discounts being offered on booze in the national capital, an excise official said. The officials have seized over 10,000 liters of illicit liquor and have impounded more than 20 vehicles, most of them two-wheelers and private cars, since April 1, they said.
Gautam Buddh Nagar's Excise Officer Rakesh Bahadur Singh said that there has been a spike in cases of people bringing liquor from Delhi to UP through Noida since the new excise policy under which liquor prices have come down almost by half. Delhi's new excise policy was implemented in November 2021.
“The activity dents Uttar Pradesh's revenue earnings and causes loss to the state's exchequer,” Singh told PTI. From April 1 to June 7, 68 people have been arrested while smuggling liquor from Delhi to UP through the porous borders in Noida's Sector 14A, Ashok Nagar, Kondli, Jhandupura, and Kalindi Kunj, he said. During the period, 10,056 liters of alcohol, including India-made foreign liquor and country-made brands, were seized while 23 vehicles, including mostly two-wheelers and cars, were impounded, the officer said.
“Of these 68 people, 62 were jailed while the remaining six were acquitted,” Singh said, adding that the UP Excise Department is “very clear” that action has to be taken against those indulging in interstate smuggling. The excise officer of Gautam Buddh Nagar, which borders Delhi on one side and Haryana on the other, suggested a spike in the arrest and seizure of illicit liquor in UP's territory.
He said, "In the financial year 2021-22, the district excise department had arrested and got 173 people jailed as compared to nearly 70 in just over two months this year...Over 27,000 liters of illicit liquor was seized at UP's borders and 28 vehicles impounded last year,” Singh said.
"These shops had reported a 40 percent dip in revenues since the prices of liquor were dropped in Delhi but have now shown a rise in revenue by up to 5 percent in the wake of a crackdown on liquor smuggling," Singh said.
