Siddu, Shivakumar differ on Excise policy?

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar appear to have run into a disagreement on the opening of new liquor stores.

Excise Minister RB Timmapur had said that the State government was indeed considering opening new outlets to sell alcohol. The two largest Opposition parties – the BJP and the JD(S) – had reacted strongly to the policy being considered.

JD(S) legislature party leader had accused the Congress of turning Karnataka into a “drunk’s paradise” to fund their expensive guarantees with liquor money.

He went so far as to say that the ruling party intended to open a liquor store in every small village, besides supermarkets. It is to be noted that state Excise Departments are considered a cash cows by ruling parties since alcohol is taxed heavily and yield quite a lot of income for State governments.

BJP MLA R Ashoka on the other hand mocked the Grand Old Party for wiring Rs 2,000 to women’s accounts monthly under the Gruha Lakshmi Yojane.

He argued that the same money would be diverted to their husbands, who’d then buy liquor, referring to alcohol addiction causing economic ruin and abuse in working class households.

Siddarmaiah appears to have taken stock of the potential for political attacks against his government on the issue less than a year away from the Lok Sabha elections. Replying to a query by a reporter on Friday, Siddaramaiah denied that the State government was going to opening new liquor stores.

He added that Timmapur’s statement had only alluded to a consideration. “We're not opening (new liquor outlets). Who claimed that? The excise minister might have said there's a consideration to do the same but we won't open,” Siddaramaiah said.

Concerns about dearth of licenses

However, Shivakumar on the same day differed on the issue, arguing the current policy wasn’t sound. He pointed out that there had been no new liquor licenses in the past three decades, adding that the existing licenses were being sold at exorbitant prices as a result.

However, he amended the statement with the fact that the liquor stores wouldn’t be widespread and certainly not in every village.

“This decision will be taken by the finance ministry under the government. Since no new licenses have been issued in the past 30 years, what’s happening is that existing licenses are selling for four to five crore rupees each. We have to provide employment to lots of people. We will take a call on where to open the liquor stores,” Shivakumar said.

It is to be noted that CL-2 (retail) and CL-9 (bar and restaurants) haven’t been issued since 1992, making even the Finance Department officials admit that it was causing an artificial scarcity of licenses.