[Dec 2007, Volume 4 Quarterly Issue] Pdf File size - The IIPM Think ...

Ali Mehdi,
Research Associate,
Indian Council for Research on International
Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi
Liberty And Prohibition:
A Governance Dilemma
"I don't make jokes. I just
watch the government and
report the facts."
-Will Rogers
The Excise department of the
Delhi government is, self-professedly,
the second largest
revenue earning department of the
state. It generated Rs. 6190 crores as
liquor revenue between 1994-95 and
2004-05, while targeting an all-time
high of Rs.900 crores for 2005-06. The
department’s website boasts that the
success of the government is reflected
in its ever-increasing revenue collection
through liquor sales, which
reached 15.3 crore bottles in 2002-03
from 6.4 crore bottles in 1994-95. Most
of the retail liquor trade in Delhi is
done by four government agencies---
Delhi Tourism and Transportation
Development Corporation (DTTDC),
The Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation
(DSCSC), Delhi State Industrial
Development Corporation
(DSIDC) and Delhi Consumer Co-operative
Wholesale Store Limited (DC-
CWS) through 309 shops. Private entrepreneurs
hold 95 shops, and two
L-53 licenses for retail sale through
departmental stores for “off-site” consumption
have been granted.
Within the same Delhi government,
there is the Directorate of Prohibition
which vows by Article 47 of the Constitution
and Mahatma gandhi, the Father
of the Nation, claiming that
“drinking in the society has ominous
implications and weakens the entire
social structure by disrupting the institution
of the family and the country
and also distorts the priorities of the
development process.” While the Excise
department is committed to “making
safe liquor available to the consumers,”
the Directorate of Prohibition
tries “to promote healthy living among
the citizens of Delhi by educating them
regarding the ill effects of liquor and
drug abuse and on the damage caused
by the substances of abuse to the society
and to the physical, psychological,
social, economic and occupational life
of an individual.”
Starting as a cell in the Directorate
of Information & Publicity in 1978-79,
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