A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the now-scraped Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s liquor excise policy in Delhi pointed out several “lapses”. The CAG report claimed that Rs 2,026 crore loss was incurred to the exchequer. The report It was released days ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025.
New Delhi: A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the now-scrapped Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s liquor excise policy in Delhi pointed out several “lapses”. The CAG report claimed that Rs 2,026 crore loss was incurred to the exchequer. , The report was released days ahead of the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025. The report alleged that AAP leaders got “kickbacks”. Notably, it is a draft CAG report as it is yet to be tabulated in the Delhi Assembly.
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The CAG report also claimed that licensing norms were flawed. Notably, the then deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was heading the excise department when the liquor excise policy was introduced in Delhi. The report highlighted that Sisodia ignored recommendations by the expert panel on the policy.
It also pointed out that arbitrary decisions were taken without any approval from the Lt.
The 2021 liquor policy caused a whooping loss of Rs over 2,000 crore.
The entities bidding for the license were not financially strong, yet they were allowed to bid.
The approval from the then Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and the cabinet was not taken.
Deviation from the objectives of the policy.
There is a lack of transparency.
- Violation in the issue of licenses.
Breakdown of total losses :
As per the CAG report, some of the retailers did not surrender their licenses before the expiration of the policy and they were not rendered by the AAP government causing the loss of Rs 890 crore. Zonal licenses were granted exemptions, which reportedly caused an additional loss of Rs 941 crore. Meanwhile, another license fee waiver of Rs 144 crores was also granted to zonal licensees on the pretext of the Covid restrictions.
AAP questioned the existence of the CAG report on the Delhi liquor policy scam case.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress lashed out at the AAP over the report.
“…CAG has revealed the whole story of the corruption of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who has played the role of a broker by destroying the happiness of Delhi… This is the same CAG report that Arvind Kejriwal used to wave in 2013. to fight against Sheila Dikshit and today the same CAG report has declared Arvind Kejriwal corrupt…” BJP leadre Manoj Tiwari told ANi.
“CAG has said that there has been a scam of Rs 2000 crores in the liquor policy… Now it is clear that he (Arvind Kejriwal) has done wrong… He has emptied the government treasury. If Rs 2000 crores have been spent in 6 months due to the alcohol policy. If that scheme was still running, we would have suffered a loss of Rs 10,000-12,000 crores,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said. as reported by the news agencies.
As per the policy, the Delhi government also proposed an increase in the annual liquor vending license fee from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 75 lakh. It was scrapped in 2022 after Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered a CBI investigation into alleged irregularities and corruption in the policy.
AAP bigwigs including former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia and former Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain were arrested in connection with the case. They are all now out on bail, but the probe is still ongoing.
Telangana CM KCR’s daughter and BRS MLC K Kavitha was also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) in connection with the case in March last year. Later in April of the same year, she was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The federal agency probe in its investigation also claimed that the AP received kickbacks from businessmen due to the policy and the money was used in the 2022 Go Assembly polls.
