List Of Shocking Bribes In Andhra Excise Department

There is a deep rooted nexus between liquor traders and excise officials that has been flourishing for years.

Every month, huge amounts of money change hands as bribes, with estimates suggesting that over Rs 300 crore flows unofficially each year.

Some officials have reportedly amassed enormous illegal wealth through these deals.

According to Eenadu, there isn’t a single liquor shop in the state that operates without paying bribes to the excise department officials and ACB is silent on this without doing any arrests, rising suspicions on that department too. Readmore!

This system of corruption has become a routine practice where bribes are collected from licensed liquor shops at various levels, from local excise stations to higher officers.

If this corrupt chain is broken, illegal practices and irregularities at the ground level can be effectively curbed.

There are even allegations involving political leaders who have supported or turned a blind eye to these violations for personal gain.

The daily news also reported that, according to a survey, each wine shop spends a significant amount on bribes to various departments every month.

The breakdown is as follows: Excise station Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000, Deputy Commissioner Rs 5,000, Excise Superintendent Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000, Deputy Commissioner’s squad Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000, ES squad Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000, State Task Force Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000, Liquor Depot Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000, and the local police station Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.

The daily also published that recent incidents, such as those in Mulakalacheruvu and Ibrahimpatnam, have forced the ruling party to suspend certain leaders and initiate investigations.

The government has now formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under an Inspector General to probe the scams within the excise department.

The hope is that this move will finally dismantle the long-standing “chain of bribes” that has controlled the liquor business for decades.

Well, all is fine. It’s the same daily that printed on the main page, stating that excise department officials performed paalabhishekam for Chandrababu Naidu’s photo when he announced the stoppage of government liquor sales and the issuance of licenses to private bodies.

But why would excise officials celebrate such a move? This latest news seems to provide an answer.

The excise department hardly earns anything through backdoor means when the government itself sells liquor. That’s why many officials were unhappy during Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rule, when the government took full control of liquor sales. 

Now, after reading this bribery report on this daily, a large section of people feel that what Jagan did was right in principle, by making the government handle liquor sales, but what went wrong was his failure to make top brands available.

However, the situation now appears even worse. Under the current government, many top liquor brands have been proven fake, with private players manufacturing fake liquor and selling it in branded bottles, amassing enormous wealth through deceitful practices.

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