SHILLONG: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has revealed that the State suffered a loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 90 lakh on spoilt beer due to the negligence of CMJ Breweries.
The report states that as per Rule 24 of the Assam Distillery Rules, the distiller shall be responsible for the safe custody of the stock of spirit in his distillery and shall be liable to make good any loss to the Government due to his negligence.
However, audit of records of CMJ Breweries under Superintendent of Excise, Nongpoh revealed that the brewery failed to dispatch stock of 10,417 cases of Magpie, 5,110 cases of Nutcracker and 7,785 cases of Savage which were produced during the months of May & June 2012 and thereafter requested for draining of the spoilt beer, as the shelf life of beer is usually six months, in October 2012.
The report said that the reasons for non-dispatch of the stock were not on record.
In addition, 7,771 cases of Magpie, 5,367 cases of Nutcracker, 8,120 cases of Savage, 7,064 cases of Royal lager and 7376 cases of Royal Strong beers produced during September and October 2012 also lost their shelf life.
The Superintendent of Excise submitted the proposal for draining of these beers in March 2013 to the Commissioner for Excise for taking necessary approval of the competent authority.
However, while forwarding the proposal, neither chemical examination reports of the beer samples nor approval for issue of show-cause for revenue realisable from the spoilt beer was put up for Government’s consent.
In June 2013, the Government accorded approval for draining of the spoilt beer in presence of a magistrate.
In November 2013, CMJ Breweries requested the Superintendent of Excise for destruction of the beer in presence of excise officials on the pretext that draining of the spoilt beer would take time and presence of the magistrate would not be feasible.
As per the report, the SE forwarded the case to the Commissioner of Excise (CE) for necessary approval for destruction of the spoilt beer. Till date of audit (October 2014), further orders of the competent authority in response to SE’s recommendation were not given.
On further examination of records of CE, it was observed that production of the brewery was not regulated as per demand as permits taken by the brewery for import and export of beer produced were not fully utilised. As a result of this unplanned action of the brewery, there was backlog of stock of beer which was spoilt resulting in loss of revenue of Rs 90 lakh to the State.
Inspite of the loss, no demand notice was issued by the CE to realise the loss of revenue to the State.
The report recommended that the Department should raise demand notice to realise the Government revenue due to negligence of the brewery.
