The State Governments of Punjab, Haryana and the Chandigarh Administration on Thursday decided to constitute two joint committees to deal with the menace of inter-state smuggling of liquor.
Apart from the senior officers of Chandigarh Administration, the meeting was attended by Punjab Additional Chief Secretary MP Singh, Haryana ACS Sanjeev Kaushal among others.
A senior UT officer said that it has been decided to harmonise the excise duty structure in the two States and their joint capital, Chandigarh.
“It was felt that there is a need to harmonise the excise duty structure and rationalise the price difference among all the States and UT and all the relevant issues will be taken care of at the time of framing the excise policy for the coming year,” the officer said.
The inter-state committee has decided that there will be two joint action committees one at the level of AETCs and second at the level of senior officers of the states and UT. The AETCs of States and UT, district in-charges of excise (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali) will meet once in every month and work together to stop smuggling of liquor by sharing of information. Apart from this, the joint action committee at senior officers’ level will meet on quarterly basis to deliberate upon the issue, the UT officer said.
It has also been decided that the enforcement agencies of the states and UT will be strengthened to plug the smuggling of liquor.