A total of 11,856 licences have been issued by the State Government for opening liquor shops for sale of country and foreign liquor during 2009 to December last year, while a total of Rs 5863.19 crore of excise revenue was generated during this period.
This was revealed through an RTI application filed by rights activist Pradip Kumar Pradhan from the Excise Department.
Out of the Rs 5,863.19 crore excise revenue Rs 3979.05 crore was deposited as Excise Duty/ Import Fee in advance with the State Government for selling of IMFl/beer/CS by the Odisha State Beverages Corporation ltd from 2009 to December 2013.
However, the Excise Department did not give information about the details of the recommendations made by any Minister/MlA/ official for granting licence to any person/shop to run the liquor shop.