Punjab excise minister Cheema, team visit Kerala to study state-run liquor business

A high-level Punjab Government team, led by Finance and Excise Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, visited Kerala to study the government-run Beverages Corporation’s liquor business in the southern state

Thiruvananthapuram A high-level Punjab Government team, led by Finance and Excise Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, visited Kerala to study the government-run Beverages Corporation’s liquor business in the southern state.

Kerala excise minister MB Rajesh presents a memento to Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema during their meeting, in Thiruvananthapuram on June 28. (PTI)

Taxes on alcohol is one of the major source of revenue for Kerala government.

Cheema had met Kerala Excise and Local Government Minister M B Rajesh on Wednesday, and his team had visited the Kerala State Beverages Corporation Limited (BEVCO) headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, a retail outlet in Karikakam in the city, and the warehouse at Meenamkulam nearby Kazhakuttam.

The officials, led by Punjab Finance Commissioner Vikas Prathap and Excise Commissioner Varun Roojam, held discussions with the officials of the Kerala Excise Department and Kerala State Beverages Corporation Limited.

Harpal Singh Cheema, however, stayed away from these visits. The Punjab officials said that they were in Kerala to study the best practices. “We are here to study the best practises, and we are learning them,” Prathap told PTI.

He, however, refused to comment on the question of whether the Punjab government has any plans to replicate the Kerala model liquor policy there.

The AAP-led Delhi government had run into rough weather with its revised liquor policy, when it decided to privatise the capital’s liquor business. Opposition parties had alleged widespread corruption in the deal, and the CBI had taken a case. It later arrested former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in this connection.