Controversy has increased with the Aam Aadmi Party government regarding this. Revised product policy now canceledLieutenant Governor (LG) Vinay Kumar Saxena on Saturday approved the suspension of 11 Delhi government officials, including an IAS officer, for “serious lapses” in its implementation. Disciplinary action will also be initiated against them.
The LG on July 22 had also recommended a CBI inquiry into the 2021-22 policy. The Delhi government later announced that it would revert to the old excise policy.
The list of those suspended on Saturday included the then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, the then Deputy Excise Commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, three ad-hoc Danix officers and four other Excise Department officials.
A source in the LG House said, “LG has taken this decision in view of the serious lapse on the part of the concerned authorities in the implementation of the excise policy.
The source quoted from the Directorate of Vigilance (DoV) report on its recent probe into the policy, alleged irregularities in finalization of tender and grant of post-tender benefits to some vendors.
The DoV report said that the Delhi cabinet and the officials against whom the action has been initiated followed the policy that the source called a “pick and choose” policy when it came to seeking the approval of the LG. had come.
Some of the “controversial” amendments, sources cited from the report, were made after the notification of the policy without the approval of the then LG Anil Baijal.
“The report points to gross violations of procedures, willful misinterpretation and subversion of basic government financial rules to provide benefits to licensees or tenderers – apparently in a vendetta,” the source said.
‘Amendment without permission’
“Despite major changes in the amended GNCTD Act, 2021, specifically the reserve annual fee, the concerned authorities revised the final product policy without taking the opinion of the LG,” the source said.
The same official, the Raj Niwas source said, floated tenders for 32 sectors and awarded them between June 28 and September 2021; Mask companies formed by manufacturers or wholesalers were among the entities granted retail licenses.
The source said the probe report tried to highlight that the proposed changes and amendments in the Excise Policy 2021-22 were “prima facie wrong”.
“These required LG’s approval, but Excise Minister Manish Sisodia blocked the note to this effect and returned the file to the Finance Secretary for further processing,” the source said.
“Notwithstanding the specific recommendation of the account branch not to allow compensation exceeding the actual shortfall in sales” [due to COVID-19 restrictions]The authorities also allowed this along with the minister-in-charge giving directions on February 1, 2022, to give pro-rata license fee relief to each licensee of the closed shops,” said the LG House source.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia accused the former LG of favoring some private players and demanded a CBI inquiry into it. Mr Baijal has yet to respond to comments.