Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Monday informed the floor of the House that following the introduction of the Manipur Liquor Prohibition (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 (2018 of Bill No 9) on the assembly floor during 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly session, the state government has been discussing about legalisation of liquor in the state.
CM Biren said that if the Bill is converted into an Act, then there would be provision to legalise liquor in the state to some certain area and appealed to the civil society organisations to take part in the discussion by identifying merits and demerits.
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He was informing the House during the question hour against the starred question raised by opposition MLA K Ranjit Singh on Monday during the ongoing session of 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly.
Responding to the starred question, Biren informed the House that the present Manipur government has been discussing whether to lift the restriction on liquor in the state or not. If liquor is legalised, then the state could collect a sum of around Rs 600 to Rs 700 crore approximately as state revenue from the fees of excise duty, value added tax and liquor license or permit, the CM said.
He further informed that ‘The Manipur Liquor Prohibition (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 (2018 of Bill No 9)’ was introduced on the assembly floor during 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly session in order to sell local liquor outside the state. However, the bill has been lapsed but the state government is still discussing whether to revive the bill or not, he added.
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Supplementing the starred question, Ranjit said Manipur has been declared as ‘Dry State’ under the Manipur Liquor Prohibition Act, 1991 but distilled indigenous country liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and others are easily available everywhere in the state. Some communities, who are allowed to manufacture local liquor customarily, have started bottling local liquor similar to that of IMFL, the MLA said and questioned if the term ‘Dry State’ was relevant to the present scenario of the state.
Biren, while responding to the supplementary question, said even the state can collect huge revenue on legalisation of liquor. However, if legalisation of liquor would bring a huge social impact on health, then the state will not encourage it, he added.
On an average, the excise department has been registering around 3,200 cases annually and that most of the death cases related to liver diseases are found to be due to consumption of under quality or adulterated liquor, CM said. In this regard, the state government has been discussing whether to legalise selling of liquor in the state or not, he added.
During the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly session, a committee formed under ‘The Manipur Liquor Prohibition (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018 (2018 of Bill No 9)’ found a positive result on legalisation of liquor in Manipur but due to untimely action, the bill has been lapsed, said the leader of the House.
He further said selling of bottled local brews similar to IMFL is done by individuals and is not related to the state government. But the state government will discuss the issue seriously, the CM said.
