Corruption and organised loot are going on in the state excise department. The scale of the scam in the Goa Excise Department could be much larger than anticipated, and its prevalence no longer surprises anyone.
In the past, the CAG has expressed dissatisfaction with the Excise Department’s lack of internal control at the primary level for granting and renewing licenses. It pointed out the failed mechanism by the officials concerned. The existing internal control mechanism was not enforced by the excise inspectors, resulting in a shortfall of excise revenue.
The CAG audit identified significant financial losses to the state exchequer due to negligence on the part of officers and staff assigned to various positions over the past couple of years. It also exposed troubling flaws. All of these have pegged the loss to the public exchequer at around crores. However, the Goa government or the excise department is unresponsive to the CAG audit observations. Although the problem of corruption in government departments has been perennial, systematic, and ubiquitous, is the government giving licenses to loot the public?
