Bhubaneswar, April 20 : With the amendment of Section 45 of the Act, the state government will have the power to grant license, pass and permit to regulate intoxicants in place of the Excise Commissioner.
After the Cabinet meeting, briefing to the media persons, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said, the State Cabinet approved a proposal of the Excise department to amend the Odisha Excise Act, 2008.
The cabinet, which took the decision at a meeting presided over by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here, also cleared seven other proposals. ‘Also, the Cabinet decided to drop some of the sub-sections of Section 90, because the state government had been facing difficulties in revising several excise fees as it had to move the state legislature for approval’, Padhi said.
According to official sources, the amendment was required to check mushrooming of liquor shops and generate additional revenue.
In 2015, the state government generated 2,557 crore from excise sector which is 57 crore more than the target.
