DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday said that the state's excise collection crossed ?4000 crore mark within the initial six months of a financial year for the first time, registering total Excise revenue collections of Rs. 4280 Crore. Addressing a press conference here at Punjab Bhawan, the Finance Minister revealed that the Excise revenue collection during the current fiscal year registered an increase of 37.62 percent over last year's figures for the same period. He said that during the year 2021 and 2022, the excise revenue collection from April 1 to October 12 was Rs 3110 crore and Rs 4280 crore respectively. He said that the people of Punjab deserve congratulations for the fact that their government has recorded an increase of 1170 crore rupees in excise revenue during this period. Slamming the previous state governments for not making adequate changes in the excise policy due to their collusion with the liquor mafia, the Finance Minister said that these governments facilitated the liquor mafia in the loot of more than 22,500 crore from the state exchequer if we assume only 7 per cent increase in excise collection every year for the last 15 years against the present growth of more than 37 percent. He said that the intentions of the government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann were clear from the fact that it has set a target of Rs 9000 crore excise collection while the last government's target was only Rs 6200 crore. Referring the unfortunate incident of Tarantarn, Cheema said that political-mafia nexus in liquor trade had not only caused loss to the state exchequer but also led to loss of a number of human lives. The finance minister said that the lobby of the liquor mafia was trying to harass our officers through the Union government to break this policy. He said that the honest government of Punjab under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and following the revolutionary ideology of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal stand firmly with its officers to fail the pressure mounting tactics being used by the Center through its various agencies. He said that opposition parties in state were also questioning the Punjab government's excise policy under the pressure of the liquor mafia. He challenged them to answer why there was no adequate increase in excise collection during their governments. (editor@dailyworld.in)