Dehradun, June 26

Brig KG Behl (retd), president of the Ex-servicemen League, in a statement has stated that in spite of promises made by the Uttarakhand government to reduce excise duty on liquor, nothing has been done so far. He said the state government should take a decision as ex-servicemen were feeling frustrated over this issue.Brig Behl said the government kept the rates of liquor same in civil by reducing VAT by 20 per cent on liquor but increased excise duty to get more revenue on the plea that it was being done to make liquor cheap in the state to check its smuggling from adjoining states. In the process, the rates of liquor in the CSD became 20 per cent costlier due to the introduction of 20 per cent excise duty.In revised excise duty in 2014, the government further reduced VAT by another 10 per cent in civil and increased excise duty instead, raising the rates of liquor in the CSD by another 10 per cent.—TNS