Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday (Feb 25) tabled the CAG report in the assembly which noted that the Delhi government suffered cumulative losses of over Rs 2,000 crore (USD 242.42 million) due to the 2021-2022 excise policy. 

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The Delhi government led by the Aap Aadmi Party (AAP) implemented the liquor policy on November 17, 2021. But it was scrapped at the end of September 2022 as corruption allegations were levelled against the party. AAP denies the accusations. 

The investigating agencies have said that the profit margins of wholesalers were increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new policy. The agencies have also alleged that the new policy resulted in cartelisation and those ineligible for liquor licences were favoured for monetary benefits. 

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The CAG report states that the reasons for the losses range from weak policy framework to deficient implementation. 

The report also flagged violations in the process of issuing licences. It has pointed out that recommendations of an expert panel were ignored by then-deputy chief minister and excise minister Manish Sisodia. 

The expert panel has been formed to suggest changes to the formation of the now-scrapped policy, which is just one of 14 on the previous Aam Aadmi Party government's performance to be tabled by the new Rekha Gupta-led dispensation. 

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"The excise department suffered a loss of approximately Rs 890.15 crore on account of license fee from these zones owing to their surrender and failure of the department in re-tendering," the report added. 

There was also a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 144 crore (USD 174.55 million) due to an "irregular grant" of waiver to the licensees because of Covid pandemic-related closure, the report said. 

According to the report, the Master Plan Delhi-2021 prohibited the opening of liquor vends in non-conforming areas, but the Excise Policy 2021-22 mandated opening at least two retail vends in each ward. 

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The tender document for opening new vends had said no liquor stores would be located in a non-conforming area. In case, a vend was in a non-conforming area, it had to be considered with the prior approval of the government, said the report.

"The excise department did not take timely action to work out modalities for proposed vends in non-conforming areas and the initial tender was floated on June 28, 2021, without taking comments from the DDA and MCD,” it said.

Licences were allotted in August 2021 even before this issue was sorted out and the vends were scheduled to start operations on November 17, 2021. 

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), meanwhile, issued an order on November 16, 2021, disallowing vends in non-conforming areas, it said. 

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On December 9, 2021, the court exempted them from paying any licence fee in respect of mandatory vends in 67 non-conforming wards. This happened after the licensees approached the high court. It ended up in the exemption of the licence fee of Rs 114.50 crore (USD 138.78 million) per month. 

"Non-sorting of this issue before notice inviting tender (NIT), resulted in this exemption and a cumulative loss of nearly Rs 941.53 crore," said the CAG report.

The report pointed out that 19 zonal licensees had surrendered their licences before the policy expired in August 2022 -- four in March 2022, five in May 2022 and 10 in July 2022.

The report mentioned that no re-tendering process was initiated by the excise department to operationalise the retail vends in these zones. 

Consequently, no excise revenue accrued as licence fees from these zones in the months after surrender. Notably, no other contingent arrangement was put in place to continue liquor retail in these zones.

AAP MPs suspended 

Earlier, Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta expelled 12 AAP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Atishi, from the House for the day for raising slogans during Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena's address. 

While speaking on the CAG report, BJP leader Baijayant Jay Panda said, "The BJP is committed to rooting out corruption in Delhi and has performed the constitutional duty and our commitment to the people of Delhi and the CAG report has been placed on the table." 

"You saw this bizarre spectacle of 'AAPda' MLAs disrupting the House to prevent the CAG report. Just by delaying or by trying to prevent a CAG report from being laid on the table, they can not hide from the people of Delhi the massive corruption which has come out," he added. 

(With inputs from agencies)