Tanka Mani Sharma, director general of IRD, told Republica on Wednesday that the government has instructed Purbanchal Distillery and Trijuga Distillery of Sunsari, Janakpur Distillery of Dhanusha, Rainbow Distillery of Bhairawa, and Dobhan Ashbrit Distillery of Palpa not to send their products to the market.[break]
“We took the decision after our investigation showed that they were involved in evading excise duty, inflicting huge loss on the government,” said Sharma.
Sharma said those distilleries were found selling liquors with fake stickers of excise duty and even selling products sans excise duty stickers.
The central monitoring team deployed by IRD has also seized products of these distilleries from different stores in Biratnagar, Dharan, Lahan, Janakpur, Birgunj, Baglung, Bhairahawa, Palpa, Dhangadhi, Dadeldhura and Mahendranagar.
“We have summoned proprietors of these distilleries for further investigation,” added Sharma.
The distilleries were found to have evaded excise duty ranging from Rs 60 to Rs 587 per bottle.
If investigations proved that the distilleries evaded excise duty deliberately, the proprietors would face one year imprisonment, cancellation of their operating licenses and fine as much as the amount that they evaded.
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