Wine manufacturers in Maharashtra have come together to challenge a state excise department notice demanding payment of the entire dues of excise duty which had been waived off for 10 years since 2001 as per a government policy.
The size of the entire excise duty corpus could not be immediately ascertained, but wine makers are unnerved by the notice, which comes at a time when they have held on to product prices despite rising input costs. Three wine producers, Chateau d’Ori, Vall?e de Vin and Mercury Winery, who have received demand notices and other members of the all India wine producers association, are filing a plea in the Aurangabad Bench of the Mumbai High Court asking the court to stay the demand notices issued and to allow all Maharashtra wine manufacturers to present their part. Vall?e de Vin, which started operations a year back, is learnt to have received a notice demanding duty of Rs 12 lakh.
The Maharashtra government had announced the policy in 2001 with excise holiday for 10 years in order to promote wine cultivation which would be beneficial to farmers. However, following a public interest litigation (PIL) submitted in the Nagpur court challenging the duty waive-off decision in September, the court had asked the state exercise department to collect the excise duty dues since 2001 from the wine producers of the state.
Shamrao Chougle, president of all India wine producers association, told FE , ?Three of our members have received demand notices and a few others received show-cause notices. Instead of approaching the court individually, we have decided to approach under the name of association. We will approach the court this week with our plea as the demand note gives us 15 days to comply with the order.? ?Though we have not collected the excise duty since then, how can the excise department collect the duty from us?? Also, we did not increase the product price at par with the cost increase in raw materials, power, which has mounted as much as 200%,? he added.
A senior excise officer at commissioner office told FE , ?There will be no show-cause notices to be issued as it?s a direction from the court. The demand notices will be served and the manufacturers will be given time to get the dues calculated and approach the commissioner with the figures. The final figures of dues can be obtained after discussion with the department.?
Ranjit Dhuru, chairman & CEO, Chateau d’Ori, told FE, ?There will be far reached impact for the decision. Large amount of farmers will be hit due to the decision.?
Yatin Patil, director, Vintage Wines Pvt Ltd, echoes the view, ?We should be given a free hand on MRP. If the government says MRP should be a maximum of 4 times of production cost, we will not be able to price products as par with the international brands.? Why should the producers have to pay for the mistake of policy makers? he asked.