U.P. to host Excise Investors' Summit in Lucknow on July 9
The event will see participation from wine-making and beer-making MSME units, ENA (Extra Neutral Alcohol) and Grain-ENA manufacturers, related plant and equipment manufacturers, industry association and interest groups and alcoholic beverages manufacturing companies.
This will be a unique initiative by any department of the state so far, according to excise minister Nitin Agarwal. In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Agarwal said, 'Our investment policies have improved under the Yogi Adityanath government and now people are willing to invest in the state. Our department is attracting investors at a fast pace and those who were already doing business have expanded in recent years.'
'Our department is organising the Excise Investment Summit on 2025 on 9th July at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow. We are inviting big companies on the national and international level, including giants like Carlsberg, and others who are interested in setting up their plant in Uttar Pradesh. We have also touched upon countries like Singapore, China, Dubai, United Kingdom, Malaysia, etc. We want them to come and invest in UP,' said Agarwal
'It will be a one-day programme and it's happening for the first time in the state. We have called Industry experts, our existing and new investors, representatives from other countries, where we will be telling them what our state is offering them like subsidies and other things. There will be panel discussions in different sessions, which will start from morning and end by the evening,' the minister added.
The department had signed MoUs worth around ₹8000 crore in the UP investors summit held earlier, according to information shared by the minister. Those who had signed the MoUs are also being called to attend the summit. Out of ₹8000 crore proposals, around 50% work has already been started on ground.
Speaking on the manifold time increase in excise revenue, the minister said, 'It is a big achievement for us that in 2017, when our government was formed, the state excise revenue was around ₹14,000 crore. At that time, U.P. was a revenue deficit state and the focus of the government was to make U.P. a revenue surplus state. Last year, we had clocked ₹52,574 crore, which was three-and-a half times more than what the state was getting in 2017. At the moment there are 95 distillers in the state which are also contributing to the revenue.'
'The main reason behind our 10-15% annual growth was that we cracked down on smuggling of illicit liquor from neighbouring states,' Agarwal added.
'Previous governments were harbouring liquor mafia. We fixed accountabilities and gave targets. We brought the entire system online and also brought a track and trace system to rule out any kind of adulteration. Right from distilleries to retail shops, everything was aligned with a track and trace system to ensure that not even one bottle goes unaccounted. Our other focus was enforcement teams which worked hard to curb illicit liquor production in the state. We have curbed this nexus so far by 95%,' said Agarwal.
Now, UP's excise policy ensures that unlike previous times, no more than two shops are allocated to a single person, ending the monopoly of liquor mafia in the state and encouraging a competitive environment, he added.
The minister also claimed, 'I am happy to share that in the last three-and-a-half years, not even one death has been reported due to spurious liquor in the state. This means we have curbed the nexus in the state.'
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