The Anti-Corruption Bureau has asked the liquor retailers in the state to furnish details of all their trade-related bank transactions. The ACB sent a pro forma and a questionnaire to the retailers, which focused primarily on their source of income for running the business. The move follows the revelation that hundreds of liquor retailers are in the business as benamis of rich and powerful politicians cutting across party lines. The ACB wanted the retailers to furnish the details of the bid amount and the account from which the Demand Drafts were taken for paying the license fee — running into crores of rupees in several cases — in six equal installments. The name of the account holder was also sought.
Similarly, the ACB sought details of the bank guarantee provided to the excise department and the name of the person who stood guarantee for the respective retailer and the former’s bank account. “We want to tap another important source of the regular transactions relating to purchase and sale of liquor,” an investigating official told this newspaper. The retailers have to pay in Demand Draft for the stocks they periodically lift from the A P Beverages Corporation Limited. The ACB wanted the retailers to provide details of the bank account from which the DDs were drawn for purchase of stock since the grant of license on July 1, 2010.
The agency also wanted the retailers to reveal the details of the bank account into which they deposited their daily sale proceeds. Apparently with a view to assessing the financial strength of the retailer to bid the shop for a high amount, the ACB asked them to furnish the IT returns for the previous assessment years also. The returns pertaining to 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 will have to be submitted by retailers