PANAJI
The Damocles sword hanging over the liquor trade with the Maharashtra government asserting it will not recognise permits issued by the Goa excise department and unleash provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, has instilled a sense of worry among both retail and wholesale liquor traders.
If the Maharashtra government follows up on its threats and actually does book cases under MCOCA, traders fear that the issue will go viral on social media platforms and tourists will stop taking the risk of buying liquor in Goa even if it is cheap, they feel.
According to Dattaprasad Naik, who heads the Goa Liquor Traders Association, the move of the Maharashtra government will certainly affect Goa’s liquor business.
Naik said, if people are arrested in Maharashtra for taking liquor bottles and cases booked under MCOCA, it will spread on social media and nobody will take the risk of purchasing liquor in Goa.
The drop in business could also significantly affect the State’s revenues, Naik said and made a case for the State government to engage with Maharashtra to sort out the issues.
“Goa government should take up the issue with Maharashtra. Government issues these papers (liquor permits to visitors), hence it has to ensure that they are honoured in the neighbouring States or it should stop issuing them,” Naik said.
The State government charges Rs 20 per permit and traders give these to visitors from Daman, Diu and Odisha who purchase liquor here to be taken back to their home states. However, they cannot get back without passing through Maharashtra by road.
These ‘permits’ allow visitors to take two bottles per person back to their home states.
A top bureaucrat from the finance department, admitted that State government revenues will suffer a significant dent if liquor trade drops due to this issue.
With all other commercial taxes clubbed together under the Centre-administered GST regime, excise duties and VAT levied on liquor is the only major source of earning revenues directly in the control of the State government, the official said.
