This story is from January 24, 2017

Harsimrat finds Navjot Sidhu’s claim on liquor consumption, revenue ‘flimsy’

Union minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Badal on Monday said cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu was making “wild allegations” and confusing facts with fiction to derive political mileage.
Harsimrat finds Navjot Sidhu’s claim on liquor consumption, revenue ‘flimsy’
Harsimrat Badal
CHANDIGARH: Union minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Badal on Monday said cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu was making “wild allegations” and confusing facts with fiction to derive political mileage.
She said Sidhu had grossly confused sale proceeds of liquor in Tamail Nadu with the excise receipts in Punjab. She claimed that the confusion was not inadvertent, but malicious.
Comparing the excise collection of Punjab and Tamil Nadu, Sidhu had claimed that Punjab had 12,500 liquor vends and its annual revenue collection stood at Rs 5,610 crore, while Tamil Nadu’s revenue was Rs 26,188 crore.
Harsimrat said liquor trade in Tamil Nadu was monopolized by the government-owned Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TAMSAC) and Sidhu was referring to the total sale of Rs 26,188 crore. She said he had “cunningly compared” the sale with the excise proceeds of Punjab. “The excise proceeds of Tamil Nadu had been pegged at Rs 6,630 crore for the 2016-17 fiscal by its finance minister in his budget speech,” she said.
The Akali leader said Sidhu was off the mark when he declared Punjabis liquor consumption to be the highest. She said Punjabis were far behind in drinking, even behind their close neighbour Himachal Pradesh, when it came to per-capita consumption.
In per-capita consumption as per NSSO data 2011, she said, Punjab stands nowhere as far as beer, wine, and refined foreign liquor consumption is concerned. “It is highest in Daman and Diu, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Goa, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Kerala,” she said.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA