The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report - 'Performance Audit Report on Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi' - revealed that several liquor wholesalers failed to submit mandatory quality test verifying compliance with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms while reports of water quality, harmful ingredients, heavy metals, methyl alcohol, microbiological were not submitted for various brands. The report was tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday. The report on the previous AAP government's 2021-22 excise policy also pointed out that in 51 per cent of foreign liquor test cases, reports were either older than one year, missing, or had no date.
Ensuring that the liquor supplied in Delhi conforms to prescribed quality standards is the responsibility of the excise department, the report said, adding that rules make it mandatory for the wholesalers to submit various test reports at the time of issue of licenses. "Audit observed a number of instances where test reports were not compliant with BIS Specifications and the Excise Department issued licenses despite major shortcomings. Important test reports of water quality, harmful ingredients, heavy metals, methyl alcohol, microbiological tests reports etc, were not submitted for various brands," it stated.The report, flagged that some test reports submitted by licensees were from such labs which were not accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), violating FSSAI guidelines.According to the CAG report, deficient test certificates were also noticed during scrutiny of test checked reports.
In the report, the CAG of India said that there is an urgent need that the excise department should proactively monitor the quality of alcohol and frame stringent quality standards and ensure compliance of the same.The alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the policy had snowballed into a political punching bag used by the BJP after Lt Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe in July 2022.